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I wonder how many people would stop thinking that "introversion" means "hates social activity" or "shyness" (or that "introversion" and "social anxiety" are interchangeable or necessarily connected) if we:
A) taught people about self-care maybe in school so that introverts have the tools to budget and compensate for social activity by the time they reach adulthood
B) accommodated for introversion and anxiety at social events like "quiet corners" the way we used to have smoking & non-smoking sections in public spaces
C) socially accepted "down time" or "recovery time" instead of this ridiculous go-go-go attitude of always needing to do stuff and be "productive"
D) redefined "social activity" to include basically anything shared with other people other than loud music in hard-surfaced environments and people yelling their conversation at each other?
B) accommodated for introversion and anxiety at social events like "quiet corners" the way we used to have smoking & non-smoking sections in public spaces
C) socially accepted "down time" or "recovery time" instead of this ridiculous go-go-go attitude of always needing to do stuff and be "productive"
D) redefined "social activity" to include basically anything shared with other people other than loud music in hard-surfaced environments and people yelling their conversation at each other?
Because introversion does not mean "hates socializing". It means that socializing takes more "energy" or emotional resources that we have to pay in order to socialize.
And people are not "ambiverts" if they like socializing sometimes or in certain contexts but don't like it other times - that is included in the definition of introversion. If an introvert feels safe or connected and/or you get us talking on a subject we're passionate about, we can become animated and excited and can talk for hours. That doesn't mean that we're part extrovert because that's not what extroversion means.
Socializing merely has a price tag attached. Some people can better absorb the cost without notice than others, some people have ways of budgeting their resources so that they can afford the cost, and some people have trouble accessing certain forms of payment so it feels out of reach even though they might have been able to pay the price otherwise.
And a lot of these challenges with paying the price of socializing are challenges that can be overcome with some training. But the further into adulthood we reach without learning those skills, the more entrenched we get in the ways we've always done things, so the harder it becomes to re-train ourselves with those skills. This makes it feel like these challenges are just *innate* and insurmountable.
Which makes people think that introversion = shyness and/or hates socializing (and therefore that "ambivert" is a thing when someone is less shy or likes socializing more, when it's totally not). When the reality is that the type of socializing offered to us tends to be more expensive than other types of socializing and we are not given the tools to help us afford the cost of that kind of socializing more easily.
#introvert #WhoRarelyExperiencesConDrop #AndWhoMakesPeopleAtConThinkSheIsAnExtrovertBecauseTheyDoNotKnowWhatItMeans
And people are not "ambiverts" if they like socializing sometimes or in certain contexts but don't like it other times - that is included in the definition of introversion. If an introvert feels safe or connected and/or you get us talking on a subject we're passionate about, we can become animated and excited and can talk for hours. That doesn't mean that we're part extrovert because that's not what extroversion means.
Socializing merely has a price tag attached. Some people can better absorb the cost without notice than others, some people have ways of budgeting their resources so that they can afford the cost, and some people have trouble accessing certain forms of payment so it feels out of reach even though they might have been able to pay the price otherwise.
And a lot of these challenges with paying the price of socializing are challenges that can be overcome with some training. But the further into adulthood we reach without learning those skills, the more entrenched we get in the ways we've always done things, so the harder it becomes to re-train ourselves with those skills. This makes it feel like these challenges are just *innate* and insurmountable.
Which makes people think that introversion = shyness and/or hates socializing (and therefore that "ambivert" is a thing when someone is less shy or likes socializing more, when it's totally not). When the reality is that the type of socializing offered to us tends to be more expensive than other types of socializing and we are not given the tools to help us afford the cost of that kind of socializing more easily.
#introvert #WhoRarelyExperiencesConDrop #AndWhoMakesPeopleAtConThinkSheIsAnExtrovertBecauseTheyDoNotKnowWhatItMeans
