I just kinda... stopped getting notifications for this thread, I guess I haven't checked it in a while. Oops.
Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt if you want, but honestly even as a person with social anxiety I think group chats are great and it feels really engaging and rewarding to be part of a really good, fast online chat where it's just you and several people making jokes or contributing with your own takes or opinions. Things like the PC Discord are
too big for me, there's so many people I don't know and I'm not really interested in trying to break into something like that, so it does get to a point where it's definitely too much. But for smaller Discord servers of something like 20-30 people are fine for me, enjoyable even.
Several people here are part of our Que-Up chats and I told someone a while ago that they remind me of when I was a lot younger and had a group of friends I was really close with and would just spend my days talking to them in an online chatroom. Even as someone who isn't super active on these forums and didn't know half the people in a room like that, I like to think the fact that I wanted to keep coming back and engaging with the people there means that I'm now a part of that group and can both enjoy being there and can be someone that people want to see while they're there. It's why I like welcoming people and thanking them for coming when they leave, their presence in that room means something to me. I often say "I'm glad they joined" or "I'm hoping they'll come" because this site has cool people that I'd like to be able to talk to more intimately.
I've seen a couple of you guys say stuff like "What if the conversation topic changes" or "what if there's inside jokes I'm not a part of" and I think the answer is just to ask or speak up. If you wanna add something to a previous conversation I don't think anyone who is there wanting to talk to people is going to stop you, it's not like there's a hard rule about when you can talk about things. The same goes for inside jokes too, just asking what the joke is or having it explained to you so you can be in on it opens up a lot more opportunity for you to be part of that conversation, and then be a part of future inside jokes that would happen in that conversation. I'm very, uhhh, I have very strong opinions about this sort of thing, I guess? But I think that just saying "I don't want to/I can't" because of these reasons you're telling yourself can discourage you and lead to this confirmation bias that prevents you from enjoying something you could be a part of.
That being said, I do agree with things like rooms going too fast or having too many people in it, and that it can be hard to just break into a conversation if the people there aren't willing to talk to you. Make other people feel wanted in the conversation, talk to one person directly if you're having difficulties talking to a whole group, and asking questions is a great way to be a part of a conversation and to give yourself an entry point.
The point I'm wanting to make is that there are good parts of both forum threads and instant messaging and you shouldn't keep yourself away from social experiences because of what you think.