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What if the introvert vs. extrovert categorization is a concept invented by so-called "extroverts", to pad their egos? It's a concept that places randomly, emo
by JesseMReeves 5y ago
What if the introvert vs. extrovert categorization is a concept invented by so-called "extroverts", to pad their egos?
It's a concept that places randomly, emotionally acting people on the same level as people who try to think rationally before acting and prefer quietly educating themselves over socializing, as "they are just different personality types". It's a concept putting people that spend all their evenings in bars drinking on the same level as those they perceive as "introvert bookworms". They don't have to admit that the quiet wallflower who doesn't seem to be interested in participating in their primate dominance games is just more intelligent, careful and thoughtful than them. It's thus a quite useful idea for people who don't do a lot of non-social activities.
It even gives those "extroverts" an excuse to pathologize and patronize "introverts", just as they do during other social settings. Even the article has a list of "coping" strategies at the end, such as "Balance your time: For every 1-hour meeting, make sure to plan at least 30 minutes to yourself." – as if thinking before speaking makes you mentally ill and require special treatment.
- stingraycharles 5y agoThis seems like a heavily polarizing and flamebatey comment. It’s not an us-against-them thing, and I would even argue that introvert vs extrovert is much less binary than your comment suggests.
- JesseMReeves 5y agoDeeply sorry if I could not make myself clear to you, thanks for showing me with a downvote. What I'm trying to do is dissolve these binary categories and find another explanation for their presence in public discourse.
- tnzm 5y agoI agree with your overall sentiment but it is a polarizing comment and it does not propose an alternative. If the group with worse values is better at normalizing their values, no progress is made.
- Buldak 5y agoThis is a strange suggestion to me because, if anything, I tend to find the opposite. That is, introversion has a lot of positive connotations (introverts are thoughtful, sensitive; extroverts are vapid, etc.), and people are generally more eager to describe themselves as introverts than extroverts.