Making small talk gets on my nerves, so I tend to only engage in the minimum required to get people talking about things they're really interested in. I think a lot of my drinking habits came about in response to being around very talkative, very sociable people most of time and needing something to get me into the spirit of things. But I came to the same conclusion you did - I've always found people draining and didn't realize that was different from hating them. I love people and wish them all the best, but I don't really want to hang out with them.