Why do introverts feel drained from socialization?

[NewEra]

It's a question that's come to my mind recently. Why do they (we) feel drained from socialization? Is it from the energy that's used by the body to talk or to listen to others? Does it have to do with social anxiety? Is it to do with focusing on their faces when listening to them? What is the reason that introverts get more drained by socialization, and extroverts can go on?

 

[nozflubber]

i think its a vigilance thing..... you know how some people can play video games for just like 24 hours striaght w/o a break? there's some that can remain vigil for longer periods of time in social environments. What i think its about is really how efficiently any arbitrary brain can process and encode the kind of stimuli presented. I as an INTP can talk about philosophy for hours, thats my "modal brain", and you as an ISTJ can.... i dunno, do accounting for 12 hours and not be pained by it.

An extravert is just a person that can effectively process social stimulii and not have to focus or work too hard at it, and can remain vigil (attentive) to it for longer periods of time.

 

[Phantonym]

It could be about the use of energy. All those different signals coming from everywhere and the need to concentrate on everything around you and also on everything that goes on inside your mind to process all of the things coming from the outside. The "filters" between the inside and outside world get to do the hardest work. That takes a lot of energy, hence the need to withdraw from all of it.
Social anxiety could also be a part of it. That adds another layer to deal with when processing things.

 

[the state i am in]

i think i agree with nozflubber.

i think Ni and Si doms get fucking lost from jumping all over the place. they get really fucking tired from having to pay attention to something they have no vested interest in. the overarching topics and areas of perceptual space they have to find, overanalyze, overintegrate into a narrative or schema of events is often exhausting unless they are really fucking practiced or they know the social situation, the socializers, and the topic of conversation.

it's draining to spend a lot of energy figuring things out. we are more detail-oriented and take longer to get everything right, organize everything retroactively, rather than just go with teh flow and move on. our style of narration and understanding is slower but more detailed, more tightly integrated. we spend longer time on lesser input, getting into more microscopic maps. the healthier introverts use a lot of/more efficient auxilary-tertiary communication and processing to move back and forth between the big and small.

extroverts get tired from having to introvert, to get down to details, to get microscopic. all that squinting. it's flexing a muscle in a way that you don't use very often. lifting with a different part of your body. it feels antithetical to your overall style, your attitude, and your way of doing things.

it's like how i suck at finding a place while driving. i just don't have any built-in infrastructure for that kind of multi-tasking, no causal links to have a basic sense of what is possible and what is not. i don't think logically in the moment to have a basic ability to identify the right map, and so i'm trying to pay attention to the road and look thru the glove box and read 3 maps at the same time. in heavy traffic with one way streets and the goddamned parallel parking!

 

[Eiddy]

For me, it seems I have to "act" like a people person, when in reality I am not. I would rather be off doing something by myself. All that acting and wanting to appear socially adept is draining.

Unless people like those long uncomfortable silences. I feel like I have to fill in those long pauses..

Isn't it much better to sit on blanket, spread out under a tree, on a rolling hill feeling the wind move through your hair and the sun warming your toes?!...

What's up with social interactions? I have never seen the need for them or the benefit of standing around trying to find things we "might" have in common with other people.

 

[Alwar]

We know that extroverts have to seek out external stimulation to invoke blood flow in the brain which explains their out-going nature. Whereas introverts can derive it internally somehow and have higher blood flow overall. Perhaps it's just a matter of too much stimuli.

i think its a vigilance thing..... you know how some people can play video games for just like 24 hours striaght w/o a break?

We used to call them "poopsockers" in the early 00's, I don't know if they still use the term.

 

[Zoom]

For me, solitude actually energizes me - it feels almost cyclical: thinking on a topic leads to more thoughts and ideas and facets of the world, tangents to follow, etc... obviously I'm interested in and therefore excited and happy by these thoughts (well, unless I'm overanalyzing social situations ), which gives me excitement and energy... which makes me do it more.

Not entirely sure if that made sense, but it is the personal answer as opposed to completely scientific in its basis.

But, well... when I see in many circumstances how there isn't a whole lot of thought involved - others are speaking to hear their own voice, or out of fear of seeming boring and whatnot - if the social interaction doesn't really require or allow for real thought, where is my energy going to come from? Bong shots? It actually depresses (which is draining ) me to be around a lot of people, because they are... blowing hot air. It may be entertaining, enjoyable hot air to others, but if it lacks substance or a root of real thought, I can't enjoy it.

Now with many people ye can simply ask them questions to get to real thought and all that jazz, which I do - but also being the person who asks "the hard questions" or who is too earnest makes me want the other person to contribute equally. One-on-one is a give and take, and I seem to give my energy to others when they don't reciprocate.

P.S. Exception: Banter with close friends, but as none of them live nearby this is not a common situation for me.

 

[Snow Turtle]

I get tired even when I'm not around people. Solitude isn't exactly energising, it's just that I'm more likely to travel at my own pace than having to focus on what's happening when I'm around other people. Ultimately if I think too much - I drain out.

 

[BlackCat]

Introversion and Extroversion are biological. I've read somewhere that there is a certain tube in your brain that processes the things that you perceive from the world. The extrovert's is wider, allowing more information to flow in but it passes through their psyche faster. The introvert's is smaller, allowing less information to be processed at one time and it passes through slower. The extrovert will process more information, but it won't be analyzed as much as an introvert's information will, due to the fact that it passes through the introvert's brain slower. If that makes sense.

The following is going to be pure speculation on my part, but it makes sense to me.

This is why I'm guessing introverts get tired, because when we process all of this information and experience it's moving slowly, and eventually we run out of mental energy to process it? And the constant input from socializing and people exhausts us. This happens in the brain. It's interesting, when I get tired from socializing or too much interaction with the world my head starts to hurt, and I think it's safe to link that with the whole "running out of mental energy" thing.

This is also why an X in the E/I slot is silly.

 

[NewEra]

i think its a vigilance thing..... you know how some people can play video games for just like 24 hours striaght w/o a break? there's some that can remain vigil for longer periods of time in social environments. What i think its about is really how efficiently any arbitrary brain can process and encode the kind of stimuli presented. I as an INTP can talk about philosophy for hours, thats my "modal brain", and you as an ISTJ can.... i dunno, do accounting for 12 hours and not be pained by it.

An extravert is just a person that can effectively process social stimulii and not have to focus or work too hard at it, and can remain vigil (attentive) to it for longer periods of time.

It could be about the use of energy. All those different signals coming from everywhere and the need to concentrate on everything around you and also on everything that goes on inside your mind to process all of the things coming from the outside. The "filters" between the inside and outside world get to do the hardest work. That takes a lot of energy, hence the need to withdraw from all of it.
Social anxiety could also be a part of it. That adds another layer to deal with when processing things.

Okay, these responses make sense. The use of energy and the way the information is processed could have a lot to do with it. Yeah I honestly don't mind long accounting work as long as I get breaks in between and as long as I can understand the work to be done.

Introversion and Extroversion are biological. I've read somewhere that there is a certain tube in your brain that processes the things that you perceive from the world. The extrovert's is wider, allowing more information to flow in but it passes through their psyche faster. The introvert's is smaller, allowing less information to be processed at one time and it passes through slower. The extrovert will process more information, but it won't be analyzed as much as an introvert's information will, due to the fact that it passes through the introvert's brain slower. If that makes sense.

The following is going to be pure speculation on my part, but it makes sense to me.

This is why I'm guessing introverts get tired, because when we process all of this information and experience it's moving slowly, and eventually we run out of mental energy to process it? And the constant input from socializing and people exhausts us. This happens in the brain. It's interesting, when I get tired from socializing or too much interaction with the world my head starts to hurt, and I think it's safe to link that with the whole "running out of mental energy" thing.

Ah, very good analysis, throwing in biology into it, possible that your theory on rate of information prrocessing is right too.


Thanks for the responses, keep them coming.

 

[INA]

It actually depresses (which is draining ) me to be around a lot of people, because they are... blowing hot air. It may be entertaining, enjoyable hot air to others, but if it lacks substance or a root of real thought, I can't enjoy it.

+1
But also, if I do enjoy it, I get really caught up in it and the aftermath is that I need to recharge after a good, intense interaction.