Are the Extroverts Quiet?

For those of you that don't know about being extroverted or introverted, Carl Jung (a psychoanalysis dude) created the two types of basic personality. Introverts are more likely to find comfort in being by themselves, not having vast amounts of face-to-face, social interactions and enjoying pastimes like reading, writing, puzzles, hiking and other sports activities that require steady thinking and logic. Extroverts, on the other hand, enjoy a lot of social interaction (including web-based socialising), but they prefer face-to-face; they're more likely to enjoy risk-taking and being involved in large group activities. This isn't going to be an article lamenting the follies and perceived superficiality of an extrovert. I am an introvert, but I'm going to try and keep myself reminded of how all extroverts are human! And that they will find my preferred lifestyle, hobbies and frame of mind, really weird.

It has to be said though, there's a lot of negativity when it comes to being either introverted or extroverted. As I said, if you're extroverted everyone will assume your fake, superficial, popular bitch who likes to party every night and never get any work done. But don't worry, you can smooth talk your teacher and get away with it! If you're introverted, then you've clearly got a mental disorder, can't function as a human being and like spending more time with your sock puppets, than actual people.

And let's leave those stereotypes at the door. We've got to wonder why we have these two personality types still present in the world. If so much of our work/school/social life depends on us being extroverted, then why do we still have introverts? Because human life needs introverts, otherwise we'd consider it an evolutionary fail and get rid of it. Likewise, we need the people who can explain what we're going to do, how we're going to do it and gets the ball rolling. Extroverts are important too.

But there now seems to be a big celebration for the introverts out there, especially on the internet and more so, on places like Tumblr. There are so many blog posts on myths about introverts. Introverts don't have social anxiety disorder, they're not nervous or shy, it's just we reach a point where we say 'Ok...that's enough. No more socialising today, I've filled up my quota.' Introverts are generally considered nerdy and we fulfill the general nerdy stereotypes. Which is why I think there's such an abundance of them on places like youtube and tumblr. But how many extroverts are on tumblr? There may be a fair few on youtube and certainly on facebook or twitter, but are there that many on the main place for fandom related blog posts, political sentiment and overwhelming nerdiness?

I didn't particularly understand what extroversion was, until quite recently. Being an introvert I tended to gravitate towards people who had similar mindsets to mine. Being an extrovert is, in many ways, completely incomprehensible to me. I am honestly impressed with anyone who can keep up that level of socialising and not get exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I certainly like talking as much as the next person, but I love talking even more when it's about something really political or about the great themes of life. I want to talk about literature, history, psychology, philosophy and the dramatic arts, not about so-and-so's new boyfriend or the weather or what I want for dinner. Unless we're discussing the best baking techniques...but that's a whole different ball game. Not to say, extroverts can't or won't talk about the bigger things in life, they're just more likely to talk about the little things as well. I am introverted, so I will have something of a bias towards introversion, but there's no right/wrong way of thinking or behaving.

Two of my housemates are clearly introverted, although they are charming around other people and can talk easily about any ideas they have. My third housemate is an extrovert. She can't stand quietness. Either she's talking to us or listening to her music or watching TV shows/films. When the topic of introversion and extroversion came up, she expressed how she couldn't bear to be alone for long periods of time, but how my other housemates agreed with me when we said we needed a time to recharge our batteries. While she finds working alone difficult and stressful, we find it the ultimate way to calm down, relax and think about new ideas. If someone seeks her out to talk, she will happily drop everything to do so. I could've probably quite easily murdered her, when she interrupted me while I was trying to write a poem.

But with this in mind, my parents would often lament in my teenage years, saying 'You don't see anyone enough. You don't talk to people enough.' and I was like 'Yes I do...what's facebook for?' I wasn't being a miserable, grumpy teenager (well...not entirely!), but I didn't understand how I would have to go to school for roughly six and a half hours; often spending time with people, whose company I did not enjoy, then be expected to spend my weekends socialising with people I would see the week after. For an introvert, this kind of thing is crazy. Let's do the maths!

If we spend 32.5 hrs per five days, being with people we both like and dislike talking to. Quite a large chunk of that time is spent socialising. 48hrs where we can solely spend time by ourselves or with our family seems quite a reasonable exchange. However, my mum who is extroverted and my dad who has created the persona of an extrovert, didn't understand this at all and it would often explode into me saying 'Because I don't like people!' Now, having read more on being an introvert and accepting this, I can now reasonably state that I do like people. I just don't like spending too much time with people. My introverted friends and I do meet up, but you're less likely to find us in a club, and more likely to find us curled up on the sofa, eating pizza and watching a good film. And no one overstays their welcome!

And that's why Tumblr is an amazing place for both socialising and not socialising. It fulfills the introvert's need for quiet time, deep thinking and talking with others. But it led me to wonder are there many extroverts on here? I'm certain some extroverts do enjoy Tumblr, but with their need to talk and be busy, are they around very often? If I was an extrovert, I would probably get annoyed with the amount of flack I get for being the way I am and how introversion is perceived as somehow nobler on the internet. I do think the internet is becoming a place for introverts, but that doesn't mean we should treat our extroverted cousins with disdain and label them with false stereotypes.

We've grown to be frustrated with a world that perceives our silence as ignorance, our steady tread as overly cautious and our inability to sell ideas as an inability to have no ideas. So let's not assume extroverts cannot become excited and passionate about ideas, just as much as we can. Even if they're busy networking in the real world right now, we should still keep the internet open for them too.