Why everyone's an introvert now
Today, Explained
This episode explores the growing trend of people identifying as introverts online, examining whether society is becoming more introverted a
Key takeaways
- Introversion and extroversion exist on a continuum rather than as rigid categories.
- The pandemic may have caused temporary discomfort with social interaction, leading some to mislabel themselves as introverts.
Main topics
- The evolution of introversion as a cultural identity
- Psychological understanding of personality continua
Notable quotes
We're not this or that. It's more of a matter of degree.
Conclusion
While personality traits are not fixed, societal shifts and personal experiences—especially
Transcript preview
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Speaker 5 (1:20) I Speaker 8 (1:21) got a call from a listener, Liddell, who had a really good question. Speaker 5 (1:36) I'm just curious, is that just a personal observation or something other people are seeing? And also just why? And Speaker 8 (1:44) the word is still on my timeline, even if it's not clogging it up as much as it did last year. Turns out the concept of introverts online has major staying power. So I gave him a call back. Speaker 5 (1:58) Super crazy. I feel like we're actually homies already because. I listen to you so much. Yeah. Speaker 8 (2:04) Hearing Speaker 5 (2:05) your voice. Yeah. I Speaker 8 (2:06) got this call and I was like, yeah, yeah, let's go down that rabbit hole. Speaker 8 (2:12) Liddell is extremely outgoing. Honestly, same. And he does a good job of putting into words what being an extrovert feels like. Speaker 5 (2:21) Excessive solitude physically drains me. If we get snowed in in Virginia for four days, day three, I'm going somewhere. I'm going to, you know, whether it be just a grocery store, it's not even all about people all the time. Speaker 8 (2:34) This interest in personality types began the way a lot of interests do. He was dating someone who was super into it. Speaker 5 (2:42) I was in a relationship with someone who was an introvert, and they would be reading this book and really like going, oh, ah, oh my gosh. And so I'm like, what is this book? So I got the name of the book, Introvert Advantage, and I didn't realize when I got it that it would teach me so much about myself. Speaker 8 (3:05) The relationship ended, but his commitment to the introverts in his life is still going strong. Speaker 5 (3:10) I may just suggest instead of hanging out for five hours, we hang out for an hour and a half. Or I may text one of them, an introverted friend under the table and be like, are you good? Speaker 8 (3:24) You mentioned that the way we talk about introverts is changing. What have you noticed? How has it changed? Speaker 5 (3:31) I feel like every now and again online, a word just takes off. I was seeing people. Who I know, who I wouldn't consider to be an introvert, proclaiming that they were. And I'm like, you know, wow, like you're out every weekend, like swinging from chandeliers, like you're probably not an introvert. But I'm not so arrogant that, you know, I feel like I can tell anyone what their temperament is. I respect everyone's take on it, of course. Speaker 8 (4:05) So if you. Could ask an expert, you know, any kinds of questions about this. What are some of the things you'd ask them? Speaker 5 (4:12) Do we shift towards the introverted side of the spectrum as we age? That sounds like it would be natural maybe, but I don't know. I definitely feel like the pandemic definitely amplified it to the point where I even hear people say crazy things like, I miss the pandemic. And I'm like, you miss being locked in the house without the freedom to move around and do things like. That sounds extreme. I feel like society as a whole is growing more disconnected, and I kind of hate that for us. I truly believe life is a team sport. It's important to be self-aware in terms of your introversion, extroversion, and how you handle people so that they're eager to stick around and sustain those relationships. Speaker 8 (5:05) I'm Jonquan Hill, and this week we're rerunning one of our favorite episodes of Explain It To Me from Vox. It originally published late last year, and in it, we're going to get Liddell some answers. What does it actually mean to be an introvert? Are we more introverted than we used to be? And is it possible to change? Would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert? Neither. Oh, can you do that? Is that legal? Speaker 3 (5:39) Yeah. Speaker 8 (5:40) This is Shannon Sowers-Avala. She's a professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, and she researches personality. Speaker 6 (5:48) It's a little bit of a misconception because we think that we can put ourselves into these like discrete categories, but most of the things that we use to describe people are on Continua. So you can be... more towards the introverted side or more towards the extroverted side, but this is a Speaker 1 (6:04) continuum with different poles. People that are more on the introverted side, they're going to need less stimulation, they're going to have less sort of energy, and they're going to derive less energy from social situations, whereas people on the more extroverted side... are going to be more excitable, have more positivity, and tend to derive a lot of energy from social situations. One Speaker 8 (6:31) of our listeners called in because he suddenly noticed so many more people identifying as introverts on social media, and he wondered if it might have something to do with the pandemic. Speaker 1 (6:42) The pandemic is kind of a huge life event, right? That really changed a lot of our behavior. You know, I would consider myself like pretty staunchly in the middle of the continuum, extroverted in some situations, introverted in others. And I remember going out to dinner when we were first allowed to go out to dinner and being like, man, I got weird. Yeah. So I think like any skill, when we. are out of practice, we get rusty. And so I think people may be kind of confusing discomfort and a little rustiness with like, I'm introverted. But I do think that here in the last decade or so, there's been more recognition of introverts as having qualities that are really desirable. You know what no one talks about? how freaking good introverts are at networking. Speaker 3 (7:37) It's a whole spiritual filtration system