Introverts / People with Social Anxiety: If the internet didn't exist, and the closest thing we got were Ham Radios, would you have the courage to use your voice and talk to people?

Tbh I'd probably just stick to books and stuff if ham radio would be my only option. I was reluctant to get into social media in the first place anyway.

Morse code.
Plus there are all the digital modes, and back in 96? I... genuinely found interest and joy in packet radio.
Plus there were dial up BBS's, and through the magic of FIDOnet you could still reach an amazingly long range.
Then there is the fact that if you had an account and access number to the local server node. There was Usenet.
Asking what happens without the internet misses and disregards all of these more localized digital communities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO5vjmDFZaI

Ham Radio has APRS, which could be considered a "text based social platform".
- FT8 for pretty maps and SSTV to xmit memes sounds pretty good. Winlink if I'm feeling adventurous.
  
  What’s winlink?

It’s not so much lack of courage as it is I don’t want to talk to you. I certainly don’t want to hear all of you. Hell I avoid spoken social media now as it is.
- Yeah, there's days I can't even listen to podcasts or the radio with people I actually like hearing because I'm so sick of listening to people talk. No fucking way I'd be interested in listening to randos and I hate talking.

Hard no.

These days there is FT8, where the whole conversation follows a template (callsign, callsign, signal strength on a scale of 1 to 9, goodbye) and is just a few dozen characters long. It can be completely automated, so you can have one to one contacts with hundreds of total strangers in just a few hours, with your radio doing all the talking so you don't have to show your vulnerable side. You can sleep or play tetris through the whole session, and then get a list afterwards showing the different countries where your radio has gotten to know people (or at least other radios). It is great for shy hams.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FT8

Am trans, crippling anxiety of having to explain my voice to people. In person I can at least hide behind my titties and give people who accidentally misgender me the eyebrow raise
- You just flipped that whole thing on its head pretty well... And also reminded me of one of two most cringiest times in my life where I misgendered someone. She worked at my local grocery shop and I had known her throughout her transition, but as an immigrant in Texas I was really keen on my "yes Ma'am" and " yes Sir" and I pulled out a "thank you sir" when visiting after a long time and she called me out on it as she should have... I felt like a dick, yet somehow did it again with a student of mine years later. I wish I had my wife's excuse (she comes from a language that doesn't have gendered pronouns and goes about her day confusedly dispensing he or shes in a totally random pattern 😂)

Nope. Before the (widespread) internet, I ran my CB/Ham mic through a guitar pedal or echo box.
I'm still a radio nerd, but I have zero interest in talking to anyone. I just want to hear what's out there.

A large subset of introverts won't use text based communications such as this; they lurk so whatever negative response here need a multiplier applied.
The 90-9-1 rule would indicate the factor is 9.
- 90 lurkers, nine commenters, and one poster?

lol, I'm currently licensed and have never put my voice out on radio.
- Same. I'm still a bit dysphoric about my voice. =/

No, but only because I have a slight speech impairment that I am self conscious about.

The only thing stopping me from using my voice over the Internet in games and shit is the fact I do not have a microphone.
I'd still be able to limit how much time I spend interacting with people.

Speaking as someone who fits the description and currently working on my license for UK Ham (direct to full) I will be using voice. Reason being calling a CQ is pretty structured and you can read it off a script, the response is fairly structured as well, and you can just do that if you want, no obligation to branch off into actual unstructured conversation unless you want to.
Plus as others have mentioned there are plenty of ways were you can still participate without having to physically speak to other people, RTTY or automatically translated morse would be ok.

I'd probably just stick to Meshtastic if it ever gets out of the beta stage

The first time that I tried chatting in a game, the original Modern Warfare 2, I was shaking like a damn washing machine trying to type out some "g Ood ShoT m An" to some other player. But I made myself do it. You don't get anywhere without practice.
So, I would, yes. Courage is a virtue. It's strength.

No.

I'd probably just read instead.

I didn't want to join a WoW guild bc they mandated TS - which obviously makes sense. Back then, no chance. Today? Maybe? If there's an interesting conversation.

SSB is just as bad, but CW is where it’s at.

You could use a speech synth!

No.

Aha no😂

How do you people function in society? Do you not have to speak to others for your job?
I used to be way more extroverted, but even as my now more introverted self I can still go talk to anyone about anything in person or over the phone. I do not understand how people can function as a member of society without the ability to speak to other people using their voices.
- I can talk on the phone - if left with no other choice. And then I need to lie down because it's exhausting as fuck.
  
  Good lord. You go to therapy for that? That is beyond not normal.
- I work in 911 dispatch, my job is talking to people, and often quite unpleasant people at that.
  On my own time, fuck that noise. Live conversation kind of sucks. When it's next based I can walk away from it, think about it, come back write my reply and hit send. Most of the time I can't exactly walk away from a live phone, radio, or in-person conversation and say "hey, good question, I'm gonna go take the dog for a walk while I think about that and get back to you in like 10 minutes" there's an expectation that I'm gonna be there engaged in the conversation and keep everything flowing, and most of the time that sort of urgency just isn't needed. I want to be a part of the conversation, but I don't necessarily have big chunks of my leisure time to set aside to just talking to people, but I can squeeze in a message here or there while I'm doing whatever else I'm doing.
  Take this whole exchange for example, I saw your comment, decided I wanted to reply to that, but I had some things I needed to take care of, so I did them, thought about what I was going to say, and wrote it out when I had a few minutes. You're going to see it when it's convenient for you, and maybe write your own reply, which I'll see and reply to when it's convenient for me, and so we'll have a back-and forth conversation that may span a few hours or even days, even though each of us only wrote a couple messages.