skylights
i love
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 7,756
- MBTI Type
- INFP
- Enneagram
- 6w7
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
I do think it's more of an extrovert's world.
I'm often suprised when extraverts claim they want to be introverts. Are you fucking crazy?!?!?
introversion is really looked down on by society (oh you're unfriendly, you have no social skills, you're boring, you're snobby, you're a bad team player, etc etc etc)
I do get the feeling sometimes that extroversion is overappreciated while introversion is underappreciated. It definitely depends from the era and civilization. Western society tends to promote extraversion.
Oh ya, also going to add that being around really extreme extroverts is a bit strange for me. I will observe the need for constant external validation, the need to constantly have people around, be on the phone, etc. and I think.. how can you ever know yourself? When doyou find the time to know whats within? I would not want to be extreme on either end of the dichotomy.
just to throw out there, i think society readily appreciates the positive qualities of extraversion, but the other side of the extraversion coin - like what huxley brought up - is readily dismissed. sometimes i think mild introverts have it easier in the sense that society is sort of neutral to mild introversion. not to invalidate the feelings that any of you guys might have, i was shy when i was younger and i know how it feels to be propped and poked when you really don't want to engage, but i do think that often the downside of being an extravert is just less immediately visible.
for example, it is bizarre for me to be praised at work or in classes for being open and talkative and enthusiastic, but then late at night when i really need someone to bounce ideas off of so they don't circulate in me like an awful clogged-up toilet (thank god for the internetz), others can be quite negative and dismissive about it. because they only want to talk when it's time for talking. given, this might be more of a Ne problem, because we like to discuss crazy shit, but still - the same exact attribute at a different time of day goes from being seen as very positive to very negative, and that's pretty frustrating. or you're in class and get on a brilliant idea-tangent, when the prof informs you that it's time to let others talk. what? dammit. i just figured out what i want to say...
plus you guys don't see the downside for extraverts as much because it happens when we're alone and/or don't have anything to engage with. you don't really often get to see us getting stressed out and wound up and exhausted and the unpleasant tangle of energy grappling to get out. cause if you're with us, we're probably on and engaged! but while you're happy and alone and recharging, i'm getting lost in a negative soup of dark emotion and thought and feeling like my insides want to break away and fly and find something to do and someone to interact with and a way to bring back life and color and light before i drown in the craziness inside my head. in some ways being extraverted makes you dependent, especially for an ExxP.
CrystalViolet said:I look at extroverts and wonder how they stay "on" all the time
it's like being a cold-blooded creature, i guess. i need my environment to help stimulate me, otherwise i get wound down, and being wound down doesn't feel good. it's the same as feeling hungry or like you have to pee. or both at once, which is a pain in the ass. you need more stimulation and you need to get what's inside of you, out.
but of course i imagine that the bell curve is most true. the people who have it easiest are in the middle of the curve, and/or are those who have figured out how to use their qualities to their best advantage.