My name is Eric and I'm an introvert.

i am actually a bit of both.
sometimes i feel like a nut..
sometimes i dont.
*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 6:13am PST - promote requested by enoch.

Introvert, mixed with a good dose of (actively suppressed) shyness.

One of my best friends is an introvert. He has taught me a lot about the nature of this personality type. One on one, of course!

i am an introvert.

Mostly introverted here, but none of the "poor introverts living in an extrovert's world! D:" stuff rings true for me. Kind of offensive.

I am an introvert who pretends wholeheartedly to be an extrovert, or otherwise I would never leave the house or talk to anyone. After a while it kinda becomes real...

Thanks to the wonderful yet illusive @kronosposeidon I will use one of his gifted PP to *quality this brilliant vid!

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by alien_concept.

As an introvert with eccentric style, I really like it here in Denmark. I can have whatever hair I want or dress however and no one bothers me. Everyone here is polite but keeps to themselves. Really nice.

Total introvert here, hell my email is hermitcrab.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

One of the things mentioned in the video doesn't ring true with my experience. I know many people with very outgoing extrovert-seeming personalities who claim to be introverts.

I think there is some social cachet in claiming the "misunderstood, enigmatic loner" title.

Actually, in my experience there is a bit of stigma in claiming to be an extrovert - mainly because they're played as chatterbox busy bodies or "relationship managers" in popular media.

fuck labels
identifying with a particular label tends to alter behavior and thought process.
kinda like identifying as republican or democrat makes you blind to both.
we're all one degree of something or another. honestly i think fitting into categories is an impediment to just being yourself.

Quite true, it's particularly chic for some people to go around telling everyone how much of a "Geek" they are these days, but both the video and the book it's based on (I've read it) state that nobody is 100% one or the other. There are probably lots of people out there who manage to function like an extrovert much of the time but in reality are pretty introverted in nature and maintaining that extroverted facade can be very exhausting.
I'd consider myself to be an introvert and I also suffer from social anxiety or even shyness in certain social circumstances, and I certainly don't consider myself "special", at least not in a good way.
The book does a pretty good job of not making judgements about either one being good or bad but does outline the pros and cons of each personality type.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Everybody wants to be Donnie Darko.

Personally, I upvoted because "disappointment" was Picard's facepalm when he found out he was the "closest thing I have to a friend" to Q.

I went to a psychologist a long time ago and she wrote a novel about me, I mean a novel about me for my parents. In it she said I was introverted and scatter brained.

Sometimes I wonder what impact that had on how I grew as a young adult. Maybe she should have just kept her thoughts to herself and said instead, he is defiant and has a bad attitude towards authority as displayed in many kids his age.

I don't think introversion is considered a bad thing in Australia.

Tried the mysterious enigmatic loner thing. Wasn't much fun, because everybody knows that the mysterious kid that hangs out alone is either shy and wants to hide it, or a possible serial killer waiting to happen.

Its also my dating strategy. Brood in some dark corner, look deep and thoughtful. Attract a girl that wants a puzzle project "I wonder what is under that strangers multiple shells/walls/defences". This has worked about twice in all my years.

Anywai, I have a lot of social anxiety. I really care what people I've just met and might never see again think of me. And its stupid. I actually like being with people though. I discovered this after an extended period of solitude and I went pretty stir crazy. The trouble is being with people I dont already know very well is exhausting. Maybe everybody is like that and they just do a better hiding it, but needless to say I am jealous of those that seem to be able to swan around socialising effortlessly.

ps. Does anybody actually enjoy smalltalk? I was under the impression that the whole world accepted it as some sort of necessary evil. It never occurred to me that some might actually like it. Its just probing for a commonality and once you get there its like bam, now we can start a real conversation.

Introvert that pretends to be an extrovert here, I have a love hate thing with smalltalk. When it comes to people I know, usually its just a way to grease social wheels to get onto something real so smalltalk is quite pleasant, wheras with more outer circle people, it can get exhausting and if not done while charged can lead to socially awkward moments. Usually the only times I have trouble with this is when people try to persist with social interactions I'm not interested in and eventually it burns me out or when trying to maintain relations with people that arent necessarily inner circle.

I hate small-talk primarily because the people who use it don't actually give a shit what you think or what you have to say. When trying to talk to these people I find that they have absolutely no substance and are incapable of having an actual conversation.

Next time someone asks "Hey, how's it going" or "how are you", etc.. try answering by telling them how things are actually going... note how they have nothing to say in response and how quickly they want to stop talking to you. And I don't mean tell them something creepy. All you have to do is say things are well (or any response that honest and isn't as empty-headed as their question) and you'll see just how much they don't care and can't continue the conversation.

Some people enjoy smalltalk because that's as deep as they get personality-wise.

Of all the many descriptions of introversion I've heard, this is the closest to describing me. It's almost perfect.

When I was young, I faked being extrovert and mostly made an ass out of myself and came off like a try-hard (which I guess I was). When someone close to me pointed out that I was actually an introvert, it was a relief that it could be OK not to talk all the time. Every aspect of my life improved. I'm quiet and I own it.

I absolutely fucking despise bars and can't fathom why ANYONE willingly goes to them anymore.

I'm very much an introvert. I'm not shy or anti-social but I have friends and relatives who cannot fathom why I prefer to spend time by myself as much or more as with them. This video rings true at the very least on the social and societal aspects and how I work and interact with others.

I'm with ya PHFJ, I hate bars and clubs and cannot fathom why anyone goes to them heh. I met my wife through mutual friends, she's almost as introverted as I am heh.

I think it was alluded to in this vid, but not stated outright.
Outgoing personalities do not necessarily equate Extroversion, or leadership roles.

Instead, I have come to an understanding that the polemics of Intro/Extro-version are rooted in WHERE one sources their stimulation from. He stated that Extroverts recharge in the company of others, or via "external sources", whereas Introverts recharge by reaching inward through "processing" ("thinking" itself it too narrow a definition).

So, really, Extroverts "pull in" (from outside) more than they "push out", while Introverts "pull out" (from inside) more than they "push in". IMHO

No it's not stupid (and you are not stupid for thinking that it is stupid). Social anxiety is a spectrum, and it is a normal, healthy reaction to be careful around strangers. Most humans are especially anxious around people we know only a little, since we think the first impression is important and the relationship is fragile and new. Total strangers don't matter as much and people we know well we often trust not to judge or hurt us.

That said I do not mean to come of as condescending and to belittle your fear (I know from personal experience how crippling it can be), but rather that nothing constructive comes from judging yourself and adding self-criticism to your anxiety and shame. You can not control your emotions directly, since they are a basic, instinctual, almost immediate reaction to a perceived (potentially deadly) threat. What you can do is try to change how you react to them afterwards, what you see as a potential threat, what you assume are truths about yourself and others in social situations and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Being shy or having social anxiety is not inherently good or bad, it just is the way it is.

A lot of text to answer a few words, but it's just that I hear a lot of people call themselves stupid because they can't do what is more or less superhuman feats (in this case to directly control emotions). Try to be kind to yourself, and to forgive yourself when you fail to be kind to yourself.

Sorry if I assumed too much and interpreted what you wrote in a wrong way, since a lot of what I wrote assumes a whole bunch of stuff about you.

Personally I'm a mix depending on mood and need both social situations and solitude to recharge. I don't much like bars, but I love to be on a sparsely populated dance floor when I'm drunk enough.

i'd be more comfortable if everyone else were robots

"There are basically two types of people in the world: those that think there are two types of people in the world and those that know better." -somebody

Preferably, smokin hot sex bots.

Haha, I actually tried that for a little while because yeah, it bothered me how insincere the whole thing can be and I hate doing that whole dance. Thing is if you unload fully on your partner then it puts them in an awkward postion because they feel they have to reciprocate your full disclosure when perhaps they don't trust you sufficiently. At least thats the way I see it (and its why I stopped being a dick to people who were just trying to be polite )

The worst small talk? 1st year of university. You meet a lot of new people which I was mostly fine with. What bothered me endlessly was the same few questions. Where are you from. What course are you on etc etc. Maybe its selfish of me, but first I got bored of asking them and then I got bored of answering. Eventually I started asking people what their favorite flavour of icecream was (lemon sorbet btw) just to, you know, break routine. I guess you might call it an ice(cream)breaker and tbh, it worked quite well. Oh, and if somebody answers vanilla then you need to keep that person close. They are the best kinds of people (and there aren't very many vanillas). Maybe I don't really have a problem with small talk, I just have a problem with boring small talk

Interesting to note that "How do you do?" is traditionally reciprocated with another "How do you do?". I mean, its seems totally absurd, its almost like the question is rhetorical - it certainly doesn't expect an answer. Its just a polite courtesy and to do anything but show the same courtesy back would be considered rude - how self absorbed of you to actually answer! The conversation might evem bloom into discourse on the state of the weather (the last refuge of the unimaginative .

Oh, and it kind of is stupid though SveNitoR. Don't worry, I don't consider myself stupid or somehow broken in this regard, but I really can't see how anxiety serves any purpose. Obsessing over the tiny details of a conversation only serves to make me look stiff and robotic, like some sort of psychopath trying to remember how to smile with their eyes. I've heard theories that the reason alcohol is so embedded in our society is because on some level we actually sort of need it to overcome this inhibition. Unfortunately I don't drink, although I have found a sort of vicarious empathy - I inherit the same hibition if I am with people who are a bit buzzed, just none of the memory loss (a blessing ang a curse). Anyway, thats quite tangental. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm quite comfortable being an introvert and while anxiety certainly bothers me and stresses me out more than I'd like I don't let it paralyse me.

I'm an extro-introvert in RL. I keep to myself mostly, and I let everybody know it.

I'm both, depending on the situation, my mood, who else is around and so on. And that's the inherent problem with simple labels for complex things. They don't work.

It's not limited to there. Perhaps that is the limit of your experience (or the time you noticed it most starkly), but it's something that keeps repeating throughout life. Move to a new city, start a new job, take a holiday in another country... The point of small talk is to find commonalities. It's a way to find out if you share enough with a person to continue to invest your social energy in them.

Why and how would you spend endless hours talking to someone that can in no way relate to your culture, your family situation, your intellectual interests, your hobbies, your food preferences, and on and on. Small talk is a way to fire as many questions through a filter and see where you can link up with someone else. I think it is actually extremely useful, if a bit tedious at times.

Absolutely agree.

I would class myself as being introvert. I like my Shell time. I work better in a vacuum and enjoy either the silence or my music without the need for people talking. I operate better locked in my head.

That being said, I can be very extroverted. Not because I am, but because I have to be. I just decided one day that there is no reason to fear being forward. I can operate well in big groups, social groups or with public speaking. I just choose not to care what people think of me and do what ever I want. But this doesn't come naturally, I philosophically "bite the bullet" and dive in. No regrets and life has been good.

But I NEED to go back to my cave where it's comfortable and "enjoy the silence". Often when I do, I have flashbacks of embarrassment for things I've done and said in the heat of the moment. Nothing crazy, just little things like some Infinitesimal part of something that meant nothing to someone else but my conscience pushes forwards and makes a big deal. I spoke without thinking it through and forming my sentences carefully and now I'm kicking myself for it. Meanwhile, no one else even knows (or cares).

So I'm Introverted, but I'm not shy.

Are Introverts Better Leaders Than Extroverts? has been added as a related post - related requested by dag on that post.