Are you awkward around your peers? Are your expectations realistic? Consider your manner of social interaction. For example are you able to recognize things like someone else's comfort zone and how do you respond to that? Similarly would you say you are good at recognizing non-verbal communication?

One solution may be to stand back and observe those people you consider to be successful socially. Consider your own social behavior in comparison. Can you model it based on what you see?

Pay a great deal of attention to body language and non-verbal cues.

Ask yourself if you are maybe being overly assertive or the oppositie.

There is likely great potential for things to turn around. Socializing is often not as easy as it appears to be. No matter who you are, it takes work.

It also seems that making a connection is not the problem. I am reading this of the opinion that it is maintaining the flow of communication that is the issue. Again, observe how this is done by your peers.

You do not have to accomplish this in one night. Take babysteps.

I have another thought here and it pertains to Social Networking. The more we use it or rely upon it the less able I believe people can be to interact in real life. I am one to believe Social Networking like Facebook and other chat outlets should be kept to a minimum. As they are impersonal and fail to include those aspects of non-verbals communication I spoke of it is too easy to call someone a friend. We can't expect the same to happen so easily in real-life.