It seems as though, given the dramatic response to this article, there must be a lot of people out there who are just now realizing that they're introverts and that the dominant culture doesn't really take their characteristics into account in terms of what it expects of them.So are you folks all introverts? Is that what you're doing on line? Is that what all these bloggers are?
Well, that's exactly right. Part of the thrill of this article is that it seems to be helping introverts discover each other. It never occurred to me when I wrote it that there would be so many other people out there with whom this would resonate so strongly. But one of the main points I see over and over again in the mail I've been getting is, "I'm not alone! There are others like me." This sense of empowerment because of not being alone is very important to people. That in itself, to the extent that that takes hold, would be a very important part of correcting the introvert/extrovert imbalance.
Your article has also been one of the most popular pages on our Web site. We posted it three years ago, and it still gets more hits than practically anything else on the site.
Yes. The Internet is the perfect medium for introverts. You could almost call it the Intronet. You know the old New Yorker cartoon with a dog sitting at a computer saying to another dog, "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog." Well, on the Internet, no one knows you're an introvert. So it's kind of a natural that when The Atlantic put this piece online, introverts beat a path to it; it's the ideal distribution mechanism by which introverts can reach other introverts and spread the word.
February 19, 2006
"On the Internet, no one knows you're an introvert."
Remember that great old essay in The Atlantic by Jonathan Rauch, "Caring for Your Introvert"? We talked about it recently here. The new issue of The Atlantic has an interview with Rauch about his enduringly popular essay:
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11 comments:
We fear sunlight.
Introverts and ugly people. I think the internet is perfect for us, cause then we are judged solely by the personality coming through our words. Or at least judged first on that, and with no visual cues to have to worry about.
There is no fear that I might, in terms of physical appearance or facial expression, suddenly overwhelm the image or message my words are trying to present.
I fear the day when computers become so powerful, and with video built in, where chatting online, or even posts online, will be delivered via image rather than just words.
If I were to form a cult or terrorist group, it would be to fight that very thing, keeping the internet from becoming overly visual. (A side issue of ours--our non-military wing-- would be to build hospitals, create a homeland for introverts, wipe extroverts off the map, and create boob freedom for the burka bra-tized breasts of the world).
Who you calling ugly?
Yes, an online life is often easier to navigate than the offline life, at least for this introvert.
We fear sunlight.
Oh, so true. It pricks and burns! Not only am I an introvert, I dislike being outside in bright sunlight. Dim, dim lights -- that's the way to go. Although the fact that my childhood home was always dim or dark may have something to do with that, if not my extreme introversion.
I fear the day when computers become so powerful, and with video built in, where chatting online, or even posts online, will be delivered via image rather than just words.
Haha -- unfortunately, no one I know has an operational webcam (or no one has told me about it), but this really works now. Not well but well enough. For Christmas, my father got all of his children inexpensive little webcams so we can videochat over the internet (we are on opposite sides of the North American continent, and travel is inconvenient). It's a little buggy at the moment, but I can see how in a year or so, it'll be a perfectly ordinary functionality. The future is now!
On the other hand, I don't think I would be all that keen on videoconferencing with someone I didn't know in Real Life, as it were. So it's not quite like chat or IRC.
Yes, the Rauch aricle is like a manifesto. I've lost track of the number of people I've given a copy to.
And I'm married to an extreme extrovert, but one who understands that groups of people just suck all my energy away. She's good about giving me my quiet time and not insisting I go out and socialize.
Like I say at parties if someone comments that I'm too quiet, "That's why I married X, she talks enough for both of us."
Incorporeality is the way of the future. The internet is preparing us for the coming time when we are freed from our bodies and become pure mind and pure spirit. Bring it on!
This reminds me of that Asperger's article in Wired a few years back, which got some very startled attention among computer people. And the "geek identity politics" reaction on Slashdot to the Columbine shootings (except that one was spectacularly repulsive, but of course most of Slashdot is spectacularly repulsive...).
It's odd to see these people suddenly standing up and yelling, "my God, I've got Asperger's!" or "my God, I'm an introvert!". Like having a name for it makes it more respectable? Or being "part of something" makes it more respectable: Yesterday, you were a lonesome neurotic with a cool job. Today, you're one of millions of lonesome neurotics with cool jobs. So what?
Or is this stuff all about finding a reason to believe that the way you are is "not your fault"? Like, you feel better now that you believe you've got no control over your own life?
Like having a name for it makes it more respectable? Or being "part of something" makes it more respectable: Yesterday, you were a lonesome neurotic with a cool job. Today, you're one of millions of lonesome neurotics with cool jobs. So what?
Well, mostly it gives us a solid framework in which to understand the differences between ourselves and extroverts. Typically, because the public culture is dominated by extroverts (or people stuggling lamely to act like extroverts, like Nixon), extroversion is normative. But the classification "introversion," sort of like self classifications of "geek" or "nerd" constructs an alternative norm (i.e. we are one among millions), which reduces the feeling that we have to conform to what we had thought was the norm.
More concretely, it gives us something we can brandish in the face of friends and relatives who think we ought to conform to the extroverted norm. Something we can wave about to say "Look! It's not unnatural. Now shut up about those stupid parties!" Not that I have ever done this, but my family is not particularly extroverted anyhow, and because the majority of my friends would tend to see themselves as "geeks" or "nerds," it's not really an issue.
As an off-the-charts introvert, I find all of this hugely amusing. Thanks for lightening my day.
Ugh, nothing makes me queasier than having to make small talk with someone I don't know well... I suspect that makes me an introvert.
What resonated most with me in the article was where the writer says that introverts feel like actors in social situations. I have always equated that feeling to being an alien, but "actor" makes so much more sense. I am excellent at small talk, because I have learned that it makes other people less nervous. But I'm always secretly sweating and dying to get away. I'm glad I'm not crazy!
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