I'm an introvert, but not to an extreme.
So, are you, by nature, and introvert or extrovert?
by onacruse 45 Replies latest jw friends
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RichieRich
I'm a hopeless extrovert with occasional introverted tendencies.
I feel like I'm on the stage all the time, which doesn't bother me, and then sometimes I just need to be by myself.
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mrsjones5
introvert.
and I married an extrovert
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onacruse
Touched a nerve, did I? LOL
Maybe it's because I mispelled the title of the thread? Dang, dang, dang, I hate it when I do things like that!
Thanks to you all for your responses...and, as is my wont, there is another reason I asked this question.
If we are on this planet as a pure result of the evolution process and principle of survival of the fittest, then by nature we would be introverts...rather like our cats and dogs and other pets. They are, by nature, introverts, and they show it in everything they do. Only when they have been trained (or shall we say, accustomized?) by their environment do they begin to behave in ways that we interpret as 'extroversion.' They see our face, then wag their tail, give a bark or two, and we assume it's because they're "glad to see us." But, is that apparent manifestation of extroversion really because they're glad to see us? Or is it because they've come to associate our arrival home with the impending food-bowl?
Likewise as humans. We are forced to become extroverts, insofar as our existence becomes increasingly codependent on other human beings: people who package our foods, refine our gasoline, weave our clothes, construct our religions--and it becomes a matter of necessity to extrovertedly reach out to, and even, sometimes, against our "inner voice," to accept those people, even people whom we inwardly hate.
So, insofar as this question might be categorized as a nurture/nature issue, then I'd say that, by nature, we're all introverts, but that by nurture, we're all formed into extroverts.
Too much talking for a Sunday morning! LOL
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lola28
Well I'm with Low-key on this, I am an extrovert, I like talking to people and can start a conversation with someone that I don't even know. However if I am placed with people that I don't like or that make me uneasy I will "shut down", not because I am an introvert but because I either do not trust the people I am with or because I do not like them.
I wasn't always an extrovert as a child I liked to be by myself and really did not welcome other children in my life, however I could alwas start a conversation with someone years older than me, it wasnt until I was sixteen that I really began to feel okay in social situations and now it is my nature to walk into a room and try and make friends with the people that I meet.
lola
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Reefton Jack
Onacruse: I don't know that I would agree with you on that one.
Some animals are very social - for example, horses (an animal that I had a lot to do with between the ages of 10 and 18, while growing up around farms).
Horses always seek the company of other horses, and get restive when separated and put on their own. What is that but extroverted behaviour?
Jack.
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Narkissos
If we are on this planet as a pure result of the evolution process and principle of survival of the fittest, then by nature we would be introverts...rather like our cats and dogs and other pets.
Hmm... not sure about that.
First, I doubt that domestic animals can be said to be so "by nature". Domestication is the result of human culture.
And wild animals show a huge variety of behaviours, by species and by individuals within species.
"Nature" once again proves to be a very difficult concept to handle. And if there is such a thing as "human nature" then culture is an integral part of it.
This being said I am definitely an introvert... but I wouldn't say I am so "by nature".
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onacruse
Hello Jack
Yes indeed, there is a gregarious nature to many, if not all, species on this planet. After all, why would I even be posting here, utilizing this otherwise very sterile and impersonal form of electronic communication, except for the desire to have the "company" of other human beings?
But what, in a purely evolutionary sequence, would engender such a desire within me? What would it matter to me what you, or anybody else, think about me, or, even more so, your opinions about my thoughts? I mean, after all, what does your opinion about my thoughts matter in the grand scheme of my life? Does it put one gram of food in my belly? Does it pay one cent of my bills? Does it add one log to the fire that warms my bones at night?
And yet, I find myself compelled to interact with other humans, on a level that doesn't provide me with those fundamental physical needs.
This is the conundrum of my question. "Theory" tells me one thing, and "Fact" tells me another, if you take my meaning.
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minimus
extrovert
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jgnat
I am by nature an introvert, but I make 6 posts a day on a public discussion board! I know I am an introvert because after a day with people, I retreat to a book and a hot bath to renew. Nevertheless, I would say my nature is to have regular human contact. I have lived alone for two out of my forty-plus years and I did not like it.
I maintain also that we pick animals to domesticate that are naturally social creatures like we are, like dogs and horses. I know I meant more than food to our dog, because I could not explain I was moving away and leaving her with my daughter. There's a few times I wished I could talk to my animals like Dr. Doolittle. A month later I came back for a visit, and it was as if I had risen from the dead. If that dog could talk human I'm sure she'd have said all kinds of soulful happy things, because that is the best she could do doggy style...first frozen in shock then jumping and leaping and licking my hand and finally giving me long soulful grateful gazes.
She never reacted that way again. It's as if, "Oh I get it. She just moved off and comes for visits now."