As someone clearly camped on the introverted side of the personality spectrum, I’m always down with “the world doesn’t understand us introverts” discussion. Susan Cain provides an 18-minute fix in this 2012 TED Talk.
Cain makes a couple interesting points about society:
- There was a notable cultural shift toward extroversion during the 20th century
- Our institutions (schools, workplaces, churches, etc.) tend to be designed to create an atmosphere which extroverts thrive in
Cain concludes with the following call to action:
- Stop requiring constant group work
- Everyone should go to “the wilderness”–i.e., unplug from the world and for some introspective time
- Everyone–introverts in particular–needs to occasionally open up and share with the world their energy, passion, and joy
We need to have a national conversation on introversion.