I can certainly understand how it feels to be overwhelmed in a chat room. I don't handle crowds of any type very well at all. Most of the time I find myself staring at the screen desperately trying to think of something useful to say. I'm pretty bad at small talk. I generally can't think of anything unless someone says something to me. Aside from here, most of the time, when I go to a chatroom, my goal is to find someone I can talk to in private. But that's not likely to happen unless I have been talking in the room so ppl know I'm not some sort of creep and I usually get so frustrated at not having anything to contribute I don't stay long. I have had more success here, but still tend to clam up unless there's someone actually speaking directly to me or talking generally about something I can speak to. The imprortant thing to keep in mind is that the folks here are the least judgemental I have come across and that there's nothing wrong with just hanging back and getting the feel for the place before you say anything other than, "Hi."

Anyway, my point is, if you just want to go in the room but don't feel like talking, don't sweat it. Just make yourself comfortable. Just my 70 % of 2/100ths of an american $