the face of an introvert

Apparently my blog comes up in the top rankings for Google queries about introversion being a disease.

This is, of course, care of my rant introversion is not a disease.

People are often surprised to hear me claim I'm introverted. I imagine I'm not alone among introverts in this, because introverts and introversion are not well-understood in general.

I've been drafting a post on this, on and off, for the last week, ever since a friend rationalised her surprise at my being introverted with the comment, "But I guess it's because you look confident in your field. Introverts are mostly really uncomfortable, even in their own field."

It was the first conscious inkling I had that there's a real misunderstanding out there about what introversion is, and what it looks like.

And today, via my tweet stream, the internet delivered ten myths about introverts:

Myth #1 – Introverts don't like to talk.

This is not true. Introverts just don't talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won't shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.

Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don't interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don't worry about being polite.

This list is so perfect, and so entirely encapsulates what I wanted to say (or at least begin with) ever since I first started drafting this post, that even though I already re-tweeted it, I thought it bore repeating here.

If only because I've already had one friend discover, on reading the list, that he was, to his own surprise, an introvert. To which I say: welcome to the (quiet-like) club!