I'm very shy in real life. Only somewhat shy online.
I'm really bad at talking to people about nothing. Sometimes it goes okay, but maybe that's because they're good at it. I'm much better talking to people if we start out with something specific to talk about, like a show or a game or something we have in common.
It's hard making friends in real life because there's no easy way of finding people my age. I'm mostly older (or younger, depending) than everyone in my classes at school... and I'm not into most of the group activities I can come up with. Once you're out of high school or so it's hard to find "smart" groups of people to hang out with. I don't mean they don't exist, but you can't just go "Yes! I will join the math team! Oh look, smart people who like math, just like me!" anymore like you can when you're in school.
Once you're out of school it's mostly physical activities (sports and things) that are available, not so much mental activities.
I guess that's why I do better online... it's easy to find groups of people who like the same thing. But I'm a pretty bad lj friend... if I don't talk to someone off of lj (AIM or MSN or something) then I have a lot of trouble keeping up with them.
I guess I've changed a lot, even though the things and the type of things I like haven't really. So it's just harder for me to keep friends. :\