When poring through my Livejournal friends yesterday, I saw an excellent link from my KoL friend Synnia. It’s on a subject that is very dear to me, which I will now share with you all:

Caring for Your Introvert: The habits and needs of a little-understood group
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/03/caring-for-your-introvert/2696/

Now, I’m an introvert. I do my best to make this exceedingly clear, and work on the presumption that everyone understands what that entails. Apparently, it doesn’t – you extroverts are by and large too hung up on the sound of your jaws yappin’ to realize that there are other ways to live life. *chuckles* Yes yes, I’m aware that statement is a touch mean, but I choose to use it as an example of the standard sort of nasty misconceptions that many introverts operate under. Some of my favorites include the insistence that:

1. Introverts have no social skills.
2. Introverts are shy/afraid of people.
3. Introverts think they’re too good to socialize/are stuck up.

Now, while this piece is a bit with the tongue in cheek, it still makes some very good points in its efforts to educate the extroverts of the world. And, in some ways, I suspect it becomes more pertinent as more and more people come online; this used to be our preserve in a way. I personally think that the Internet has been a wonderful gift to real introverts, insomuch that you can socialize a lot more with a lot less strain. This has its potential drawbacks as well, of course – I know that people often are surprised to find that I am/consider myself an introvert, because I CAN big it up and socialize and have a good time. But much like the article says, it is almost like acting. There is that bit of distancing that is needed to keep the socialization up, though the pain will still land if you don’t take the needed recoup time. *chuckles* And that, mes amis, is why I always have massive fever blisters at weekend meet-ups and cons… 😉

Anyways, I still need to wrangle myself into finishing my story for The Chrysalis Experiment, so I’ll leave it that. And, y’know, encourage everyone to share it with the extroverts in their lives, if only to educate them that yes, we love them… now shoosh!

<3