Who do you think posts more on message boards/forums/chats: Introverts or Extroverts?
Do you think extroverts tend to post MORE often and when they do post, post more details about themselves then introverts? Do introverts post less often and write sparingly when they do?
I’m introvert-lite; on those personality tests I usually score either slight introvert or dead center (ambivert?). I predict this board will overwhelmingly skew introvert - the extroverts are all, y’know, outside. 
IIRC, we’ve had polls on here asking whether posters were introverts or extroverts, and the proportion of introverts on here was way bigger than the proportion of introverts in the general population.
ETA: Ambivert here.
Nope, wrong wrong wrong.
The proportion of people thinking they were introverts was higher.
In reality few people are pure introvert/extrovert. For some weird reason it is seen as somewhat cool/intelligent to be an introvert so people seem to really, really want to be one.
You ask a lot of questions that can’t be answered by your poll.
That seems like an extrovert trait.
I hate this sorting of people into boxes: i.e. you’re either X or you’re Y. When it comes to being extroverted or introverted its really your own choice, the thing to realize is that being extroverted requires continued effort and like anything until you’ve spent time doing it you probably won’t be any good at it. You also have to accept that you’re going to rub people up the wrong way some of the time.
The truth is the vast majority of people fall in between the extreme introvert who goes to great length to isolate themselves from other people and the extreme extrovert who expends great effort trying to make themselves always the centre of attention.
Myself I admit I can be very introverted and I spend far more time by myself than the average person. On the other hand if I am doing something that demands I am engaging I will go out of my way to be and I also have no problem with things like speaking to large groups of people.
Not sure, but I’ll bet the lurkers skew toward introvert.
Completely agree with this. Of course some people are naturally very gregarious, and some are just incapable of being sociable, but the vast majority of us fall somewhere in between and can be as extroverted and gregarious as required by the circumstances.
There’s also the phenomenon of those who appear to be very extroverted but only function as such in specific structured circumstances, like hosting a talk show or public speaking, or the kind of introductions and chit-chat that the famous always have to endure. It’s amazing how quickly one can become acclimatized to specific social structures. It’s useless telling someone there’s nothing to fear and no one is going to bite you, but send them out in front of a big audience several times a week and in a few weeks or a month you’ll have a confident public speaker. But if a person is naturally introverted he or she will probably remain that way in private. Johnny Carson was said to be that odd kind of mix. So not only is introvert/extrovert a broad continuum, it’s also one in which even extreme introverts can carve out niches in the extrovert realm through skills and experience.
Aside from the possible self-selection bias, our MBTI have indicated that the type with the highest plurality of votes here was INTJ. Last such poll had them at 31.9 of all voters, while many of the E types have as few as single votes.
IMHO introverts post more. Extroverts are out in public with actual people.
Introvert here, and I’ve noticed that on the occasions I do post, I’m excessively… well… chatty. I never give just a simple response, it’s like I think everything is a frickin’ essay question. :rolleyes:
I wonder if for some introverts, it’s easier to be open online than it would be to share with non-online “strangers”. We may never meet off-line, so there’s some safety there. (I’m a little more open online than I am off-line, by virtue of the fact that I’m a little nervous around flesh-and-blood people who I don’t know well.)
On the other hand, being open online might feel more risky to other introverts, because the only way we can judge each other is by our screen names and what we post. You could get hurt pretty easily, actually.
I’ve met extroverts who aren’t exactly forthcoming with details about their personal lives, too, so I don’t know if it’s as clear as introverts = this, extroverts = that.
Interesting to think about!
(Introvert)
I can’t speak for others, but I actually feel much more comfortable becoming involved in conversations online than I do IRL. So I post often. I also text more; I think I find comfort in written communication. I almost never answer phonecalls - I’ll send it to voicemail then text the person. Communication via typing allows me to form a response comfortably and without a time restraint.
And I definitely share more about myself online than I would during an IRL conversation. Especially on SDMB.
I would think Extroverts post less because they’re more interested in face-to-face interaction. But I don’t know.
Why do people seem to think introverts are not very active or sociable?
I’m probably an introvert, I like my own space and can often find people draining, but I’m also incredibly active and have zero problems organising and hosting large groups of people for various activities, and spend a lot of time playing sports and sitting in bars chatting.
Seems to me more likely that the extroverts spend most time posting, they are the ones that need the feedback or validation more.
Nah, they’re all on Facebook and Twitter.
Seriously, they are. The issue here can’t be “introverts use computers for social interactions”. Poll users of social media, and you’ll find extraverts (btw, folks, it’s introversion and extraversion - and no, I won’t shut up about it, it’s my pet peeve). If nothing else, because you’ll find, you know, people, and more people tend to be extraverts. And don’t tell me the difference is that people on social media are casual users, while the forum-dwellers are the ones spending all their time online. I don’t buy that. We all know people who seem to spend their whole life on Facebook, and I don’t see anyone complaining about that. While, conversely, many of us here don’t post all that frequently.
So what exactly are the poor introverts being accused of? 'Cause it’s clearly implied that they’re up to *something *nefarious. Actually, I’m not even sure. There has to be some misconceptions involved. (I mean, beyond just the normal ones on display right on top of this thread, ranging from “introverts don’t exist” via “introversion is a choice”, to “introverts are all basement-dwelling troglodytes”. Those I can’t even be arsed to address anymore.)
But, ah, you say: It’s not the same. Users of social media actually talk to real people when they’re online. Forum users just communicate into the general aether with an amorphous blob of other forum users, without it involving real relationships. Or maybe I was the one who said that. Anyway, I do think it’s true, to an extent.
Problem is, that isn’t acually typical introvert behavior. I mean, think about it, both in terms of the stereotypes and the actual extreme introverts and extraverts you’ve known: If you don’t care who you’re talking to, and you just want to spew forth words into the cosmos, then you’re likely to be an extravert. Introverts are likely to have fewer but closer relationships, and to be more comfortable communicating with people they know well, rather than strangers.
Also, come to think of it, I may have it completely backwards. My experience with Facebook is that people there tend to post tons of shit directed at no one in particular.
Huh. My post above ended rather abruptly. I thought I had an argument formulated there. Guess not. Oh, what the hell, I’ll just ramble some more until I get to essay length:
So what’s going on? Why are forums full of introverts (if that is indeed the case)? Well, I think it’s about a couple of things:
The first thing isn’t about introversion as such, but about social anxiety. If you’re so screwed up that you can’t get your social interaction fix anywhere else, you’ll go look for it on a forum full of anonymous assholes, 'cause you’re desperate.
It does strike me as a bit odd, though, that this should lead to a forum population that skews introvert. Introversion does not equal social anxiety. And if introversion is, among other things, about having less need for social interaction to begin with, why should “desperate for social interaction” be descriptive of introverts?
But, even so, maybe that really is how it shakes out. Even hard core introverts need *some social interaction, and if you’ve spent so much time alone that, oops, you forgot to build any actual relationships, then you might be out of luck elsewhere. You can’t do the Facebook thing, obviously, because there’s no one of your friends list, apart from your cat. So, it’s a bit paradoxical, but I’m willing to say that it’s probably a real thing. In fact, I’ll go further: I’m willing to say that it’s the reason why I *post here sometimes.
(Sometimes. Usually when I’m going through one of my “crazy recluse” phases. Otherwise, I’m getting enough social interaction and then some in the real world, usually to the point where I mostly want to strangle someone, and then you guys can all sod off. But anyway…)
Another thing has to do with signal to noise ratio. Introverts often suck at small talk, compared to extraverts. This is because they have this idea that conversations should be *about *something, and involve the exchange of ideas and information, as opposed to just the social function of communicating for its own sake. (Which, BTW, is a misunderstanding on the part of those introverts, so you can all stop looking so smug. It’s certainly not how communication started out. Most non-human animals communicate, and it’s rarely *about *stuff. Phatic communication is a thing, people do it, it’s important, and don’t knock it just because you’re awful at it. Or at least that’s what I keep reminding myself of a lot.)
Which is the other reason why I post there, in addition to being a desperate and lonely basement-dwelling troglodyte: To talk about things. To exchange, you know, information, without the noise level being too high. Which is a feature of forums that I think is attractive to introverts. It’s certainly not a feature of Facebook.
Although, I have to admit that my standards for what counts as ideas and information are pretty low at times. See my posting history for ample proof of that. Also, there *is *small talk going on here, it’s not like we’re all Vulcans. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that, too. I see threads that are so utterly mundane and pointless that I can’t figure out why they exist, and then I realize: Hey, that right there is small talk. And then they make more sense.
I agree that a lot of people mix up being shy, having social anxiety, and being an introvert. If you feel any kind of awkwardness or discomfort interacting with people, you’re automatically “introverted” - couple that with the coolness factor mentioned above (extraverts* are just a bunch of frat boys and dumb blondes!) and you get inflated numbers. And no one is pure introvert/extravert - Carl Jung himself said such a person, if he existed, would belong in an insane asylum. I think it’s reasonable to say there’s a higher rate of extreme social awkwardness among strong introverts, given that they’re more likely to not have as much “practice” in social situations, but it’s not impossible to be a gawky extravert.
At the end of the day, all the terms refer to is how one re-energizes. The quintessential extravert can get energy “from the crowd”, while an introvert recharges by spending time alone. You can extrapolate from that, and assume people would naturally prefer the activity that doesn’t sap them of energy, but that’s not always true - my joke upthread aside, there are plenty of introverts who like people, but just can’t be around them constantly (and extraverts who like, I dunno, walking alone in the park, but can’t do that for hours on end, etc, etc).
And the aggressiveness towards Teh Extraverts you find among some introverts online (coughredditcough) just makes me despair for humanity. Tribalism, baby!
*My spellcheck isn’t happy with your spelling, technically correct or not . . .
Yes, exactly. Popular misconceptions notwithstanding, introversion and extraversion are not synonymous with shyness and gregariousness, respectively. According to one researcher, they reflect actual differences in brain function: extraverts process external stimuli through a cognitive pathway that is primarily mediated by dopamine. Introverts, on the other hand, use a longer pathway that is mediated by acetylcholine. If she’s right, we innies really do literally think more slowly.
As to social anxiety, I’m a strong introvert, but I can and will talk to just about anybody - I’m comfortable schmoozing.
I just need to go read a book, later.
I’m more extroverted on the boards buts that’s only because I can pick and choose the conversations I want to be in.
Can’t do that in real life.