Introverts and extraverts are at war, and introverts are winning. WTF?

16 August 2024

Marie Le Conte, writing for New Humanist, in a provocatively titled article: the introverts are winning, seems to suggest introverts and extraverts are embroiled in some sort of global conflict.

A quick explainer. People generally fall into one of two personality traits: extraversion or introversion. It’s a scale. You can be close to either end, or in between. In short, extraverts seek stimulation by being around people. They’re often perceived as being outgoing, sociable. Introverts find stimulation internally, in their minds. They’re often absorbed by their thoughts, and as such tend to be reserved.

But you don’t get to choose where on the scale you sit. You can’t just leap from one side to the other, simply because it takes your fancy. You are what you are: introvert or extravert.

But if there’s a battle between the two, I’m clearly reading the wrong news channels, because this is the first of heard of such a struggle. But I wonder if Le Conti knows what it means to be an introvert. It would seem though, introverts, of which I am one, are responsible for all manner of societal ills.

Among these are the growing preference of people to work from home, and conduct many of their social activities by way of social media. Streaming movies (instead of going to a cinema), and performing things like banking and grocery transactions online, are also part of the… problem.

Advances in technology, and make no mistake, that’s what made just about all of these activities possible, are behind this shift in human behaviour. It might make for a great headline to suggest this is all a conspiracy on the part of introverts to achieve world domination, but yeah, whatever.

In the years after [pandemic] restrictions were lifted, many naturally outgoing people — this writer included — have found it that bit harder to get their friends out of the house. Plans somehow require more effort than ever to get made, and are always at risk of getting cancelled at the last minute. A spontaneous pub trip, once a cornerstone of British social life, now takes work to organise.

So, no one want to go the pub anymore? This could only be the fault of introverts. They somehow managed to gain the upper hand during the stay-at-home orders, imposed in many parts of the world, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and are now foisting their will upon everyone else. Le Conte, mercifully however, acknowledges the present cost-of-living pressures facing many people, may be playing a part in keeping them at home.

Quite a big part, I’d say. Let’s take the Australian restaurant industry as an example. In Sydney alone, dozens of well-known dining establishments have sadly been forced to close in recent years, mainly as a result of the rising cost-of-living. Cash strapped diners are staying home. I’ll say it again: these closures were caused, largely, by cost-of-living issues. Not because introverts conquered the world.

People are probably reluctant to spend an evening at the pub, because they’re trying to save money. I highly doubt the same people, who were presumably extraverts before the pandemic, mysteriously underwent a sudden personality change, and became introverts afterwards.

Greater global instability, particularly an increase in acts of terrorism, is also seeing more people choosing to stay at home. This is because some people — and I’m not sure how many — are said to be fearful of going out. It has nothing to do with people who have a certain personality trait. It is because of concern for personal safety.

This reluctance to leave the house however, according to Pascal Bruckner, a French philosopher, is a “triumph of the slippers”. In other words, people are more comfortable donning a pair of slippers, and seldom leaving the house, rather than putting on their shoes and venturing into the world.

The so-called triumph of the slippers however, is, apparently, a major victory for introverts in their “war” against extraverts. Bruckner may be a philosopher, whom I thought were generally learned people, but he seems to have little understanding of introverts.

Who will win the war? Bruckner is proudly fighting on the side of the extroverts, but he isn’t exactly optimistic about what’s to come. As he points out, wannabe hermits have a powerful weapon at their disposal: the internet.

Who will win the war? A war between introverts — sorry, wannabe hermits — and extraverts? A “war” the introverts are apparently winning because of the internet. I couldn’t make this stuff up, even if I tried. But we all knew the evil internet was going to come into this sooner or later.

Technologies that allow us to do more online — and not just at home — have no doubt been a boon for introverts. We do, after all, like spending some of our time in quiet spaces, away from others. It’s in our nature. But it’s not just introverts who have found value in being able to do all sorts of things online, rather than in person.

Le Conte’s article may be correct in suggesting people have become more withdrawn from others, and are more obsessed with social media. This may not be a good state of affairs. And no doubt, more of us are conducting a greater number of activities online, things that once required going to a place, and interacting with others.

That’s not necessarily bad of itself. But to suggest the present state of the world is the result of some sort of war, being waged by introverts against extraverts, is outright absurd. I’ll leave it at that.