I think our society does encourage us to socialize. Yes, TV/cable/computer (never forget that!) addiction encourages us not to, but be honest, in previous generations additional work often did the same thing. Our society speaks ill of those who don't go out and party (or at least hang at the cafe) and in general does expect you to be "out and about". Yes, there are forces against that, but there's a lot of verbal "pushing" to be "engaged" with other people, even total strangers you don't care about.

It's annoying.