Humans are social animals but what species are you? Introvert or extrovert are too generic for most of us to relate. I enjoy the company of close ones but can’t handle more than two weeks with them, I don’t enjoy loud restaurants on Saturday nights but I like crowded summer music festivals. Contradictions are normal but knowing about them doesn’t solve our social dilemmas.
Size and weight matters
Like many other areas in life, variation seems to be the key to keeping joy over time, otherwise I could survive solely on vanilla flan! Each type of social event having different characteristics, they weight differently on us and consume some points of our internal battery. We have different battery sizes but also different weighting score: your partner may have refilled hers at your last outing while yours lost half of its weekly capacity.
Social pressure doesn’t exist
“I don’t want to” is an acceptable answer to “Why don’t you come out tonight?” and forcing yourself to attend might result in you feeling alone despite being surrounded by others. The sign to watch out for is when someone always hides behind stress, fear or fake plans. I wrote "always" because going out only once every three months is still normal, the only way is to go socialize your way.
Knowing you have the connection
Would you rather have one close friend that you see once a year or one acquaintance that you see once a month? The best would be to see your close friend every month and forget about the acquaintance but address this in simpler terms: not every occasion to be social is good. If you’re not lucky enough to have access to quality social easily, don’t settle for average opportunities and cherish your bests. You don’t always have to socialize to meet your social need.