A Little Rant About Introverts and Extroverts

I have more than once heard it stated that people more oriented to introverted personalities are fundamentally different from their extroverted counterparts in one very significant way: while an extrovert will feel emotionally and spiritually energized from social interactions and deliberately seek them out...the more people and the louder the better...it is precisely this type of situation that drains introverts, who relish solitude to replenish themselves.  Being such an introvert, I really don't need around me any extroverts who think it is part of their mission in life to change me into a more "social" creature and impose their view of social interaction on me: I've seen extroverts in action and oftentimes it isn't very pretty, what with all of the backbiting, gossip, grandstanding, verbal aggression and manipulation I hear...

Speaking from my own experience...and not necessarily yours...it is complicated enough for my feeble mind to figure out where someone else is coming from in simple one-on-one conversations, much less to sit at a table or in a room where most of the people there are simultaneously assessing and judging each other while in conversation and spewing out stuff about others who are not present.  I remember even back to the first grade when the teacher would simply walk out of the classroom for a couple of minutes and the entire class would erupt into spontaneous, loud chatter...I would just sit there overcome and immobilized by it all.  But school is where extroverts get the automatic upper hand over introverts and the latter are often psychologically beaten down over the years to the point where...well, it all seems pointless.  Introverts are not incomplete or insecure people who need to be brought out of their "shells"...Lord knows, I've encountered some extroverts who have to rank among the most insulated and insecure I've experienced...

Most of us are mixes of introverted and extroverted personalities, seeking a kind of balance whenever we're either too isolated or too crowded.  Although without a doubt pretty far down the introverted scale, I still enjoy my family and associating with others, as well as being interested in what goes on around me...I just don't want to be swept off into oblivion by the masses...or even a small group...