My blogging friend Nance over at Mature Landscaping posted about the new issue of Time Magazine with a cover story titled:
“The Upside Of Being An Introvert (And Why Extroverts Are Overrated).”
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It’s about time!
I have written about Introverts, or rather, the misunderstanding, mishandling, and under-appreciation of this group of people in the past. Ok, I ranted with foams at the corners of my mouth. I LOVE this paragraph below and will quote it again, and again, whenever I have a chance:
The American dream is to be extraverted. We want our children to be “people who need people.” We want them to have lots of friends, to like parties, to prefer to play outside with their buddies rather than retire with a good book, to make friends easily, to greet new experiences enthusiastically, to be good risk-takers, to be open about their feelings, to be trusting. We regard anyone who doesn’t fit this pattern with some concern. We call them “withdrawn,” “aloof,” “shy,” “secretive,” and “loners.” These pejorative terms show the extent to which we misunderstand introverts…
Introverts need to learn about the positive benefits of their personality type. They need to be taught that reflection is a good quality…
The time has come to respect the introverts in our families and classrooms, and the hidden introvert in ourselves.
Source (1999)
This was written in 1999. It is now 2012. About time that a major publication such as the venerable Time rights the wrong, sets the record straight.
I was ready to take out my credit card in order to walk through that pay wall Time.com cleverly set up so I could read the said cover story.
Then I took a good look at the cover Time has chosen for this issue.
No. No. No. No. No.
Introversion does not equal shyness.
Introverts are not necessarily shy. In fact, psychologists have been warning adults from labeling children “shy” if they seem reserved. This will only create a self-fulfilling prophesy. This is ironic since Susan Cain, whose book Quiet this Time article was based on, wrote an article titled “Don’t call introverted children shy” published by Time Online at the same time. She specifically addressed this common mistake of confusing introversion with shyness:
Shyness and introversion are not the same thing. Shy people fear negative judgment, while introverts simply prefer less stimulation; shyness is inherently painful, and introversion is not. But in a society that prizes the bold and the outspoken, both are perceived as disadvantages.
Though I along with many others are excited that the undue attention paid to the extroverts in this country is finally being brought to light by such a widely-read magazine, I believe this cover is doing a lot of people, esp. children a disservice by reinforcing a misconception.
And, that’s what I have been doing these past two nights. I tweeted, I Facebooked, I google+’ed. I could not let it go.
So here it is. A Facebook page for Introverts are not shy.
LIKE the page if you agree! Chances are nothing will get changed. I don’t have the self-grandiose illusion of this starting a movement. BUT, it certainly makes me feel better tonight.
And I am going to bed.
p.s. Now it’s two days later. Still cannot let it go. I added a Google Plus page for good measure.
{ 19 comments }
Sucker Punched
March 25, 2011 imho is just a polite way to say I know you don't give a hoot what I think but I'm going to say it anywayWarning: This post is a RANT with a heavily identity politics bend. So if you have no time nor patience to listen to People of Color whining “Oh no not that wah-wah we want to be represented crap again!”, please just ignore me when I come back down from my high horse. I AM BACK! [...]
Tagged as: Asian Americans, comments are the best part, posts in which i talk about race, psychotic foaming, Shamelessly showing my identity-politics stripes
36 comments