Ineffable Ontological Detanglement .: Introspective Assistance & Mental Analysis Manual
No this is not something you are choosing to be, no this is not something you learn to be, no this is not something you are pretending to be. What extroverts currently do to introverts within our society is pretty much the most severe of all no reason ego battle. "You're CHOOSING to BE THIS. You THINK IT'S OKAY. AWWW BECAUSE YOU'RE SO SAAAD YOU DON'T GET THE NATURALLY PRESUMED VALIDATION OUT OF OTHERS BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLLOOOOONE AND SAAAAD. HAHA. HAHA. HAHA. HAHA." It's one of the little brain parameters, it's baked into your very grey matter, it comes this way from birth this is your genetics.
Some will say find value in others, some will say find value in yourself. I will say shut up I don't think you understand what you are suggesting, you are suggesting the other do the thing that the one does. The one perceiving this reality. "I have noticed I like hanging around with people. I suggest hanging around with people." "I have noticed I like spending time with myself. I suggest spending time with yourself." Everyone exists in a varying degree of balance within these two feelings and what you're supposed to do is the one you feel like doing.
Loneliness and the full feelings of isolation generally only happen in an extrovert, and I'm afraid you're just cursed. If you feel lonely and there's nothing you can do about it, your best idea is probably distract yourself. I recommend not just finding a hobby, but finding a fulfilling hobby, a hobby that creates. Once you start creating you may realize there is in fact value to a life outside of hanging out with your friends, but you will still be a little lonely. It isn't annoying when your more introverted friend turns their phone off for awhile, it's annoying that your constant "HAY. HAY. HAY. HAY. HAY. Wanna hang out. Wanna hang out. HAY. HAY." makes them have to turn their phone off for awhile. You need to learn that all of the people are not here for the extrovert and that's only natural, on this one you're the one who's going to have to suffer and shut up about it because your pleasure is derived in others and that's simply the way it is for you, you require support to maintain what you have, it's the curse of being the superior extrovert.
The total 100% introvert, I'm not sure if I can give you an opposite lesson, if you have zero drive to hang out with people you're just never going to find value in a life of being social with the others in your moments of boredom. HOWEVER, if in your alone time you do not have a fulfilling hobby that creates I'm just going to have to go ahead and side with extroverted ego battle and declare you the saddest of the sad. If your life is total alone time and you're not achieving anything with it, your introversion is malfunctioning. Some declare themselves introverts simply because they wish to justify their life as a sad nerd, and yet they yearn for a social life, you're not an introvert, you're lying to yourself. Go find your friends, if it's confidence you lack then first find yourself then find your friends, we'll try to help.
Introverts do crave validation about as much as extroverts, unless they're near the top of autism or schizoid, they just do it differently. A little bit with deep emotional repression and processing dysregulation but I am most certainly still hunting for my validation. Introverts seek a deeper and more meaningful validation, by the time they've figured it out, before then they may think they crave the extroverted version of validation.
An introvert gets depressed when an introvert thinks their introversion is telling them all they want out of life is video games. However you don't exactly get to make fun of the dork, flip side of this person, extroverted total social validation addict, your state of being is most certainly more impressive to observe but inside you're about as pathetic. The both of you are doing things internally to call the other one pathetic and you're both pathetic for doing this and you're both absolutely right about everything you're saying.
The CORRECT one is ambivert, like me and Aria Wellington, right in the middle. That is the correct way to feel naturally, it's the most fun and least emotionally intense. To an ambivert, social exhaustion don't so much hit you, loneliness is basically just boredom.
Now, you're both pathetic. However, I'm afraid in the debate of who is MORE pathetic, within the "about," introverts win this debate, extroverts are more pathetic. I'm not just saying this because my ambivert leans about 4% introvert. The introvert doesn't require it's validation from others, the introvert don't get to tell you this, the introvert has to keep the full extent of their awareness a secret from you, because if they don't you explode into a little ball of smug superiority over getting all of your internal validation out of the approval of others rather than getting your internal validation out of the things you actually achieve.