<human>: Could you distill the essence of the text into 1-3 sentences?

It seems that every new little fling or flirtatious conversation usually ends with me either losing interest, or it fizzling out one way or another. I know for a fact it's mostly me combined with dissimilar interests or personality traits since it's easy to tell after the fact. I know I am a fairly attractive young dude, but looks only go so far as I feel I am duller than watching paint dry. I know of some guys who can pull girls left and right, either by personality or manipulation. Which to me seems like a shitty thing to do, or makes me think I really am dull.  I do realise the point of dating isn't just to get girls, but to meet people and make friends and I am having trouble just getting past the meeting people part

Other than close friends, talking to people and making new friends is really difficult to pull off successfully and going up to random women has proven even more difficult. I just cant hold a conversation or seem interesting enough to the other person to keep their interest. I've heard lots of people tell me to try to get into hobbies and meet people with similar interests, but I don't know where to start, or how to start. I am basically socially "illiterate" to a point. A lot of insecurity plays a part in most of this, but an outside look on myself can help me a lot in either curbing it, or make me realise that it's not really something to worry about. 

At this point I am just confused and lost. Am I not asking the right questions? Am I ignoring key phrases that most people say to gather interest? I just don't know.
<bot>: Shooting myself in the foot in the first few conversations I have with potential dates/friends. Either too dull, or not realising my faux pas. What should I do?