Introvert Pride

As technology has continued to expand, we've become more and more reliant on digital communication -- and the pandemic has only accelerated the trend. People are no doubt communicating more via social media, text, and instant messaging apps than ever before.  Let's enter a time capsule and go back to the late 90s/early 2000s, when America Online (now AOL) was in its heyday. While many people jumped on the chat room and IM train, it was nowhere near as ubiquitous as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are today.  We must acknowledge, of course, that smartphones weren't a thing yet. Now, thanks to the wide adoption of WiFi and data plans, we can keep in touch with friends and family at the push of a button, no matter where we are.  As I've addressed in prior posts, COVID helped to usher in a new era of remote work. Yes, some companies were already allowing employees to work from home, but it was more sporadic, on an as-needed basis. Now we're witnessing people -- introver...

This really applies not only to introverts but to everyone who grew tired of the shackles of secondary school.  But I would venture a guess that most of my fellow introverts were picked on at some point in their middle/high school years, whether because they were deemed the teacher's pet, a nerd, antisocial, or unnervingly quiet.  That's why starting college was undoubtedly a breath of fresh air in many an introvert's eyes. Newly released from the stigmas that followed some of us since elementary school, we viewed it as an opportunity to rebrand or reinvent ourselves.  No longer would Kenny, whom you met in kindergarten and graduated high school with,  ensure that everyone in your midst knows you're exceedingly taciturn, as he was now off to a college thousands of miles from yours.  In college, everyone is treated like an adult because now they're footing the bill for their education. Students looking to be spoon-fed need not apply.  Don't want to go to cla...

If you asked any introvert to name the one thing they've appreciated the most about this new reality ushered in by the pandemic, working from home is sure to be a popular answer.  That being said, in light of the fact that Covid is beginning to recede, it's no surprise many fear this flexibility will soon be coming to an end.  It's not to say that extroverts don't value being able to work in their pajamas and binge on Netflix while crunching numbers.  But on the whole, introverts -- who are partial to written communication -- are less enthusiastic about a return to face-to-face interactions.  Because our social batteries drain more easily than those of our more extroverted counterparts, we haven't found ourselves in need of a recharge quite as often these past few years.  Sure, Teams and Zoom meetings aren't always fun, but we'll take them any day of the week over having to be present for pointless brainstorming sessions and water cooler conversations. Not o...