system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I am a 21 year-old who is rapidly becoming a hermit/recluse. I don't necessarily see anything "wrong" with it.

When I was in high school I used to care a lot about how people perceived me. I didn't have many friends and was fairly shy and whatnot.

In college, during my freshman year, I thought I'd make changes to my life to become more sociable. Unfortunately, I didn't change much because I stayed at home for school to save money, and moreover, I was still fairly shy.

I'm in my last year and the pressure is beginning to pile up. Need a job, need research experience for grad school, still need to take tests, keep resume updated etc. On top of that, I want to keep my main hobby (writing) alive. 

I'm finding that making friends is becoming less of a priority. But at the same time, I'm seeing myself turn into an extreme hermit of sorts...what's troubling is that now I don't care.

Before I cared about appearances, having lots of friends...now I have like, literally, 1 or 2, and I hang out with them maybe...once every couple months. Otherwise I really don't hang out or go anywhere.

When I look at others, I can definitely tell that this is not supposed to be the norm. People go out on the weekends, have at least friends who text them about stuff that's not school related, go out to bars, have experiences.

I just don't care anymore, but I think this may be dangerous. My twenties are supposed to be vibrant, or at least that's what novels and movies say. Change my view. I don't really necessarily want to be a hermit anymore, but at the same time...my parents don't have friends. Older people I meet seem to not have friends. When I was growing up, most of my classmates' parents didn't have many friends. 

It seems that having friends and "doing life" is something reserved for the young...then people have families/get hitched and loose interest to 
go out.
gpt
As a general rule to life: the less you care about the outside pressure and the more you think for yourself what you want to do, the happier you are. If you find yourself happy keeping to yourself, go ahead. The purpose of going out with your friends and partying is to have fun. If you're having less fun doing that than staying home, there's not much point in going out, is there?

However, to save yourself from mental issues later in life (humans are, after all, social animals), you can try to see people you are most comfortable with as often as you are comfortable with. Be it your parents, your old friends or whoever.