As the main question posits, how much do you think your friends have effected your chance at being a successful (or unsuccessful) dater or getting laid in general?

This is something I think about a lot, how much your social group influences you. When I was in high school and my early 20s, I hung around a very nerdy group of guys where several were clearly spectrum, and when I sort of broke out of that group, I was talking to a friend who brought up my socialising quirks, I would speak very monotone and info dump very fast, I held myself very awkwardly and reserved, I treated every conversation as essentially a verbal joust and I would speak louder and louder to talk over people. Eventually through new friendship groups I broke out of a lot of these habits and low and behold, I started to become more and more successful at dating and getting laid, which made me think about how my old friends had essentially screwed me out of 10 years of socialisation, even now I socialise easier with people 5-10 years younger than me than people my own age, which leads to a lot of social anxiety for me, leading to a loop of losing game. I often joke that I essentially "caught Autism" from my older group of friends.

During Covid, a lot of the friends I made in this new city I moved too in the year prior, moved away, so for the past 8 or so months I've been going to "nerd group" meetups and such to talk about just stuff I'm interested in and meet people here and I've noticed, 30+ year old guys (some quite good looking but not ever getting laid), all talking monotone, info dump very fast, holding themselves extremely awkwardly, treating every conversation as an argument etc etc and I've noticed these traits have been sinking back into me and I've gone from being able to with some effort, get laid at least once a month, to not being laid now even scrapping bottom of the barrel in 6. I really feel my socialisation skills have gone down the fucking drain and my "aura" is "Weird, awkward nerd guy".

This has me wondering, what effect do you think your friends or social group choices have had on you getting laid or dating? Do you think that if you surrounded yourself with "Chads" you would be finding yourself getting laid more often or having a more attractive form of socialisation? Do you ever think that your choice of friends basically screwed you out of socialisation skills and experiences?