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...

Are you a bookworm?  If you call yourself an introvert, there's a good chance you routinely devour all manner of books -- new and old, big and small. Introverts, after all: Tend to have an insatiable appetite for knowledge  Are big on solitary activities like reading  Turn to books for an escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life  Imagine this: Back in the 18th and early 19th centuries, books could only be afforded by the elite.  That's right.  Only well-heeled property owners (and unfortunately, "property" often encompassed slaves as well) like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had the means to amass these pricey tomes. In fact, they boasted whopping collections than ran in the thousands!  Back then, people of modest means would have killed to live in a time where books are as affordable and easily accessible as they are now. (Amazon Prime, anyone?) Yet, people take this convenience for granted.  On average, people read maybe a hand...