As a former extrovert, I grew up listening to people whining about their beloved ones being too shy, timid, inactive and self-serving, and personally took pride in my being the opposite, walking right onto the top of the world with a whole race that’s ready to embrace us, the “chosen ones” who dare to speak up and take actions. And the world soon kneeled before people like us, with worship offered blindly shortly after our triumph and turned coldly on introverts, like they’re a contagious plague that’s gonna spread the virus of failure far out, which is pretty much an unannounced public execution of introversion. After a few generations when all of us become subject to such a deep bias, we can’t even tell when it becomes a well-accepted tradition since we all internalize it from a very early age to push everyone to be more out-going and active but feel the urge to do so.
Have we ever paused for just one minute and ask ourselves, “What’s wrong with those introverts?” —Nah, not really, the question should be “what’s wrong with our society?” —to be blithely convinced that certain types of things or people are more superior than the others or verse visa? How could our society possibly go so wrong down on that path into the darkness? Truth is ignorance has bred arrogance, prejudice and discrimination so well that people have no room left in their heart and brain to see that either one is better than the other coz it’s just a psychological definition of people’s two divergent reactions toward stimulations from the outer world — extroverts are prompt to act fast (not necessarily with a smart plan) while introverts show stronger inclination in thinking twice (again, not necessarily with better outcome). What clouds people’s judgment and makes people convinced that extroverts excel the introverts is that their swift reactions, bold decisions and radiant personalities trump in a world hard-wired for productivity and efficiency.
Into Introversion
Ever since I’ve transformed myself into an ambivert (I land in the middle of the introvert/extrovert spectrum, making myself neither an extrovert nor an introvert), I started to see things differently. And it’s crystal clear to me now why I’d choose introversion over extroversion — being or thinking like an introvert makes me more compatible with my inner strengths and my envisions. To my delight, my sometimes withdrawn and reserved style of being betters my contemplation and ignites my creativity, though I feel part of the weight of bias on the shoulders of the introverts at the same time. And the introverts (about a third to a half of the population) are definitely undervalued for what they’ve accomplished and contributed to the world, which is extroversion-oriented and unbalanced, designed and built to provide the excessive stimulations and attention that the extroverts crave, leaving no extra space for the introverts to ponder, to concentrate, and to create. Stones are cast on the introverts not because they actually do something wrong but because their very distinguished existence contradicts our conviction. We’ve made the same mistake over and over throughout human history, don’t make them the next victims on that list.
Rather, embrace their way of being. Spare them their shame and guilt about wanting to be alone. Leave them to their solitude, it’s the air they breathe, and a crucial ingredient for creativity and transcendence. Allow them to go off to the wilderness by themselves and generate their own unique ideas and bring them back to the community later. Encourage them to maximize their talents and do what they do best (exchanging and advancing ideas) in a quieter and more low-key environment that they’d prefer without being isolated as a group of outliners or outsiders. Wait for them to wow us. Alternatively, this revelation will reward the extroverts, too, by showing them that our society’s capable of being more versatile and acceptive but less prejudiced. Together, we’ll make the world a better place.
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