introversion nr i'm glad this is being embraced and allowed and recognized as normal these days. when i was a kid, i was always supposed to speak up, talk more, be louder, etc. etc., even by adults, to be like everyone else. when i started to come out of my shell in high school, i remember talking just for the sake of talking and not seeming boring, even if i didn't have much to say. i'm more confident and extroverted as an adult, but i'd be lying if i said it hasn't taken me awhile in adulthood to stop internalizing that. 210930 ... kerry i feel this, nr. i've always hated attention, especially as a kid, and when i was really little i would hide under my bed when certain people would come to our house. the kind of people who take up a ton of space. and introversion doesn't equal scared or antisocial or shy. or shouldn't. to me it means reflective and perhaps a bit reserved. and reserved is fine--we can dole out bits of ourselves however we like. 211001 ... tender square extrovert here, but a book that really helped me understand the introverts in my life to a much greater degree was susan cain's "quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking." our society places too much value on extroverted qualities and writes off people who don't fit that mold, ignoring the unique gifts they bring to the world. keep being you, introverts. 211002 ... nr thanks, tender_square. and i can see that, kerry. the introvert/extrovert labels seem so arbitrary, which is probably ironic since i started this page. but people who have met me in the past few years generally think i'm more extroverted, whereas growing up, it was the opposite. i still consider myself an introvert, though, because i recharge by being alone or in small groups. i am social though, and do enjoy talking to people. there are social, outgoing introverts as well as quieter extroverts. i suppose the divide is more about being loud vs. quiet. loud was definitely rewarded. 211003 ... nr a friend and i were talking last night. he's having an easier time with the pandemic than i have, because his hobbies are mostly online and/or at home by himself. i've noticed that i really thrive in a collaborative and social setting as long as i can choose when to leave to recharge my energy. my creative pursuits, such as playing in a band and seeing shows, doing and seeing live comedy, playing team sports, or taking a tech class where you can bounce ideas and problems off others in the class, have all been put on the shelf. he's very loud — when we used to meet up with friends on the second floor of a pub, i could hear his voice from the main floor entrance. he's very chatty when he's in the mood. i'm much quieter than him, but more social and extroverted than he is. 220107 ... oof *than i am 220107 ... epitome of incomprehensibility I was talking with David when we were in Toronto in December, and he had the idea that I was an extrovert in the Jungian sense. He said it was different than the colloquial sense - it wasn't so much about being more or less sociable, but about having inward- or outward-focused interests. He thought that I wouldn't count as an introvert as much as, say, my friend Julia, a computer programmer, who would spend more time by herself working on projects. "More, yes," I said. "But I still think I'm more an introvert than an extrovert that way." So for fun, I looked it up online and did two free tests. The first labeled me more of an introvert than extrovert in the Jungian sense, though it was about a 60-40 split. The second gave a similar result and also a Myers-Briggs type: INFP. "Mmm, I see you as more of an INTP, as you said before," went David, so I teased, "Oh, so NOW you trust intuitions about these things over 'official' results" or something. But it's true that these things are only approximation s of any particular personality and not foolproof. And I'm sure being an introvert or extrovert in the more casual sense is a spectrum too! I like being around people, especially for conversation, but I can get "peopled out" (when I worked at a summer camp and had time off, I'd usually read or go for a walk alone, because I was around others ALL THE TIME otherwise). On the other hand, I'm often unhappy being alone for too long. When my anxiety is high, I find it hard to sleep if I'm in a building by myself. But even if I'm not worried, I get lonely if I haven't talked to others for a while. 220107 ... e_o_i TL;DR - I think I'm somewhere in the middle of the introvert-extrovert scale, but I lean a bit more to the introvert side. And it's interesting to hear other people's takes on this! 220107 ... nr "I get lonely if I haven't talked to others for a while" same here, e_o_i. i think the introvert and extrovert labels are limiting on occasion, or at least misunderstood, because people often equate introversion with preferring to be alone, and extroversion with being loud and/or social. i've seen too many "this is what introverts have been waiting for" memes during the pandemic. while it's true that introverts would be the population more likely able to handle isolation than extroverts, introverts DO get lonely and need people. at the core, introversion just means you recharge your energy from being alone, and extroversion means you recharge by being with others. 220107 what's it to you? who go blather from