Read them? Good.
Now, I get that it's easy to get irritated at people who glorify introversion and pretend to be one in order to seem deep and sensitive, but this kind of wholesale slamming of introverts downright enrages me. Are the extroverts (or ambivert, in Ms Waldman's case) who wrote these articles really so indignant about extroversion being "uncool" that they felt the need to insult introverts to reassure themselves about the ways in which extroversion is still the standard to strive for?
Addressing the first two articles first, I take issue with the level of personal offence these two ladies have taken at the attention introverts are receiving.
Just because introverts are glad that they're finally being recognised as something other than socially deficient, it doesn't mean that they're touting it as THE standard to attain, which is far more than I can say for society's traditional belief in the superiority of extroverts. Introverts over the years have spent their lives being misunderstood, teased, bullied, and denigrated - and just as they're beginning to find some semblance of representation via the Internet, along comes a bunch of butthurt extroverts that claim they're being attention whores. Really, people? Really?
I feel the need to respond to some of Ms Weaver's points directly.
1. You do not justify your social impediments as charming quirks indicative of a secretly brilliant personality. I don't; I justify my quirks as indications of being an individual. As for my brilliance, it needs no justifications.
3. You seem OK; those around you do not constantly feel the need to ask, “Are you OK?” People around me are concerned about me and check on me when I'm down; perhaps you should reevaluate your relationships if no one ever asks if you're alright.
7. You don’t ruin camping trips, birthday parties, Christmas parties, office parties, bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, murder mystery parties, anniversary parties, bonfires, sleepovers, vacations, group projects, brunches, lunches, bridal showers, baby showers, concerts, and road trips simply by being yourself. This is a horrible way of putting down billions of people in one sentence; your parents must be so proud (I know I would be). After all the effort society has put in trying to convince people that being themselves is fine, along you come and shut all that waffle down. Bravo. Slow clap.
8. Sometimes you do things alone without tweeting “OHHHH MY GODDDD I LOVE TO DO THINGS ALOOOOONE!!!!!!!!! #INTROVERT” Oh, but, but... Miss Weaver... have you perhaps considered that people tweeting such things might not be actual introverts?
Maybe she has. Maybe her crass listicle (I hate that word) is an attempt to be ironic, or to throw a sarcastic curveball at the extroverts posing as introverts. I doubt it, but there's that possibility - to which I would say that she still does a horrible job of it, because her phrasing covers all introverts, and offends every last one of them.
As for Mr Hudson's frightfully shallow piece on what makes people interesting, I have just this to say:
You are not my dentist, therefore you are not entitled to pull my teeth. I have no desire to share with you any of the interesting things I think about or experience, and I can see why the "boring" people you've met didn't want to either. Also, your listicle is incredibly uninteresting, not least because of your terrible choice of photos; to judge by the images you used, apparently only semi-naked white people are interesting. How boring.
I'm sick and tired of people either hating on or idolising introverts. Why do people on the internet only ever tend toward the extremes? Here's a tip: the average introvert doesn't appreciate either. The average introvert would probably much prefer not being labelled and defined simply by one dimension of their personality.
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