Why do I have no friends? Is there something wrong with me?

[Natz]

Ok I am 26 yrs old. I have a group of close friends and we have all drifted apart. It seems like I am the only one making any effort to stay in touch. I do have other friends but not ones that I can call and say hey let's go shopping or hey let's go movies. To me it seems like my close friends have moved on with life and I have not moved forward. They have boyfriends/girlfriends etc and I feel like I have been kicked to the curb because I am not in that same stage of life "settling down" or whatever. It makes me feel like there is something about me that just scares people away. I don't know why I am in this situation. Sometimes it seems like my friends would rather hang out on Twitter or Facebook than hang out in person.

How would I even go about making new friends? I'm shy, I'm quiet. It takes awhile for me to come out of my shell. This past week, if I didn't message people, I would not have heard from anyone. I would have been isolated totally. I am really lonely especially because of this holiday season. My extended family are overseas so I don't really have any other family members to turn to apart from my sister and I feel bad always inviting myself onto her. I can't stand being on my own for this long. I'm scared I'm going to become a crazy old cat lady or something. If I don't have any friends, how am I meant to even attract anyone from the opposite sex when my own "friends" don't want to hang out with me.

Help?
I can't even believe it has gotten to this stage where I am like OMG worried. There has been an instance where I went shopping with a friend and she was basically on the phone the whole time checking her Twitter. Like I might as well have gone shopping on my own. New Year's Eve is in a couple days and I have no plans. My friends have organised their own stuff with their partners and their familiies and I would not invite myself cause I would feel like I am intruding. I sort of feel like I need to get a life.

I will be completely honest - I feel like a loser cause of this situation.

[Danielle]

honestly the best way to make friends if your shy is by social events, like churches, volunteering, joining clubs, or signing up for classes on something your particularly interested in. put yourself in situations where you meet people with the same likes as you so you have something in common to start up conversations, and dig deeper with that person to see what else you have in common. the next step is to make an inside joke with that person, or share a fun experience that you can recall when conversation get dull. then invite that person out to coffee or something casual. if that person takes to you then they will grant you Access into their group of friends.

[Courtney]

I was thinking maybe you should get a bit more involved with them on social networking sites that maybe they've been talking on if you don't already? Try to get more involved in things they do
(e.g: comment on pictures,comment on statuses, quote tweets) just involve eachother as much as you can but don't look to desperate because you can find more friends from some place else I suppose
This probably didn't help at all but yeah

[Pankaj D]

If you had friends in the past, there is no reason why you would not have in future. All this happens in life. It moves on. Be yourself. There are enough people in this world who will accept you as you are.

[Sarah]

Its not that people don't like you its that it might take a while to get more friends try making new friends I'm shy like you but i have learned that people who are true friends will wait for the real you to come out you can't just hope for friends out of the blue and you won't become a crazy old cat lady