On becoming an introvert in the city of extroverts

I heard something that confirmed how I have been feeling in this city for a while, today. Even though I'd definitely consider myself an extrovert by the definition of getting energy from being around other people, I'd have to say that this becomes less pronounced but at the same time more needed in  New York. While this may sound a little be paradoxical, it seems to be common in this great urban space.

People are constantly surrounded by people and yet often times don't even notice them (texting other people on their phones for instance). At the same time there is a constant noise level that you almost miss when you are in a quiet place for a change, you hear thousands of pieces of conversation, do a lot of small talk and say countless hi's and bye's every day. You cannot even remember all the faces of the people that you have encountered on just a regular day, let alone any of their names. At the same time you can just get lost in the anonymity of this place and not greet anyone, just be and noone cares either.
And I think that's the root of the problem, so many people feel like others do not care about that and their feeling of lonliness is actually aggravated by all the people around them.

All of this sounds pretty grim but I'd like to stress that I still believe this is an amazing place and I'd never want to have missed the opportunity of living in this crazy metropolis for a while. It's just so hard to understand that in some ways, the more people, the more intense and the less social the place becomes. We were talking about that longing of silence and meditation that so many New Yorkers have, the booming business of yoga retreats is a witness of that. Overwhelmed by their daily lives, people pay a lot of many to not have to talk to anyone and just be, which is exactly what they could well do in their own space, should they choose to do so... Although, I suppose the feeling of getting away from all the daily routine and stress is what makes it appealing to people. However, the intention is still to learn something from that place far away that you can incorporate into your daily routine...

At the risk of sounding like a cliche yoga teacher, in the end it seems like the opposites are always quite close to each other - being lonely and being social, noise and silence as well as anonymity and familiarity... Maybe that's what they mean by the ying and yang? Mental note to learn more about old chinese wisdom here... No matter what, I could see myself doing a nice yoga retreat, maybe balanced by some surfing activity not to get too spiritual there...