I feel the same. i'm gonna take a good look at this topic.

I have no [euphamism] idea.
@turtlepower: my parents had the exact same attitude. Friends are a path to the dark side; good grades are The path to success. In their defense, I've been looking up 80s commercial compilations lately, and their are all kinds of PSAs scattered about to promote things like that. I think someone tried to research how people whose lives were ruined by drugs got into them, found that they mostly got in through friends, and just stopped there and started the campaign against peeer pressure. I'm sure this has nothing to do with 21st century social atomization.

The most important thing I've gotten from looking for advice on any life-type problem is that no one has anything helpful to say. There are only platitudes and cliches and feel-good articles full of ads.
The closest thing there seems to be to a scientific consensus is that friendships come out of shared experiences. Seems believable, I guess.

Man, that advice is so backwards at this day and age. In fact, good grades barely get you anywhere. Knowing how to form social connections and networking is where one gets you the $$. And the first introduction to socializing obviously comes from friends. People who focus solely much on academics will be at a severe disadvantage, unless they literally focus their studies at some ultra specialized and understaffed skillset. And even then, the guy or girl who has made friends to expand their options will still have an easier time.

  It's hard to form social skills as an adult when one was told to discourage such things as a child. My parents were the same way, and I can say it made things harder. Along with college, you have to suddenly learn how to interact with people, and then quickly turn those connections into ways to improve yourself. Most people with healthy social skills just have to figure out how to network, not how to form relationships and friendships.

  the first major hurtle is to try to integrate yourself with the interests and social topics of your classmates. These students have no knowledge nor interst of topics that are popular with the visually impaired. No one uses Team talk in the sighted world, they use Discord. Most people don't use audio programs too heavily in that age group yet, but discussing books with the right people will be a way to connect with others. You just need to observe what are the topics of interest with the people around you, and try to connect with them through showing interst and contribute to the discussion. Then from there, it gets easier to talk about other stuff. As well, avoid tactics by school administrators to segregate you from the main group of students, especially during lunch time. Do not be forced into a far off table close to exits where no one sits. Pick your own seat and maybe try to get to know people around you to sit with during lunch while in class.

  It's always awkward meeting new people. Even the most social of butterflies have to consider the best way to interact with people and get a feel for who's around. It just takes practice. And the best time to do this is when young. Take this from someone who wished he wasn't so socially stunted when young, but its never too late.

I've said for a while now that it doesn't matter if your friends are online or not. For me, I want a connection with someone else's personality, so it doesn't matter whether I talk to him/her over the Internet or in person. I don't need a bunch of friends to be happy, just one or two close people I can fully connect with. Small talk after a certain point irritates me because there's nothing meaningful in the discussion. This is my problem with most people. I'm simply not interested in so many things others are, so finding common ground is really hard. Add the fact that transportation is a major pain in the ass and I don't really want or need to go many places, and you may understand why the Internet is such an incredible resource. I can talk to anyone I want, at any time, from anywhere in the world.

As for chat apps, TeamTalk could most certainly be used in the mainstream. Honestly, my two prefered chat applications of choice now are TeamTalk and Zoom. Discord is a mess and from what I can tell is mostly filled with people playing video games that I can't play anyway.

When I was much younger I had a really hard time making friends. My school were really reluctant to accept me in the first place. They only let me in because my mom threatened to sue their asses. When I finally got there, they made me sit in a class, away from the class. The class was broken into 2 separate sections. The first one, where all the students were, and the second one where I was forced to stay. For the most part, the girls were only interested in my eye colour. Its gray  with brown and Blue. I don't think they ever saw someone lieke me with blue eyes lol. Anyway. When I got to standard 1 or so, I started fitting in more. I was still a little outcasted, but I started to make more friends. But to myself I started feeling like they treated me like a baby. I started to isolate myself again, and I started to do more reading. A good chunk of them started cutting me off as well because I was excelling in my studies. They started spreading all sorts of rumours how I was cheating, and my aid was writing the correct answers for me. By the time standard four came around I met my bestfriend. His name was Khishawn. He liked me for me. Luckily for me, even though they looked at me differently I was still able to relate to their conversations because I didn't really know about blindie stuff. I was just an average Trinidadian 10 Year old. Instandard 5 the worst social event of life so far had occured. One of my friends who I had mad in First Year, Kye and another friend I had made, Kedel started, a revolt against me? Kye convinced everyone in class to attack me. Standard 5 was the worst until that point. My mom eventually came in and told the principal about it, and he did something that I hated him for. He told all of them to stay away from me. I have expensive gadgets etc. I had about a month until SEA so I just rode out the storm. Now High School came. New start, I have new knowledge, and new ideas. By this time I was introduced to the blindie world fully. The first week was people bombarding me with questions. I didn't really care for people because of the stuff that had happened but 3 months ago, but I made one friend. Jerome. Jerome and I were really, really tight. We were so close in fact, people thought we were brothers. We looked the same, we were the same hight, and we were alwasy together. Eventually I made more friends. I showed them my world, how I do things, and I even flabbergasted them by showing them that I'm a normal person. I laughed at their blind jokes, and I made some of my own.
The thing is, just be normal. Don't go flaunting yourself around as if you're trying to get support for blind people. Yes show them that you're a nomal person, but as I told RTT, don't be a hero. Be friendly. Joke around with them. If you're not into anime, pervy stuff, sports and meems, don't go forcing yourself into that stuff. If they don't wanna be your friend out of their own free will well so be it. At the end of the day, you go to school for an education. Friends are just something you happen to make along the way. And sometimes, even your best friends can turn on you. I personally experienced that. I hope you manage to make some real, true friends. And as Nevv said, anyone who wants to be your friend out of self-preservation is a dirty person. And you tell them this.
"You my friend attempt to befriend me to make yourself look good? Or to get a reward? Well guess what? I don't need your pitty. Get a life, and buzz off."
You can phrase it along those lines, but by you telling them that, you set a president, and people who even hear you speaking like that will realise you're a cool dude who isn't willing to be pushed around.