Introverts and Instant Messenging
Are you one of the few friends I have that actually still uses IM? Ever wonder why I’m almost always set to some kind of “away” status? I was pleasantly surprised to find that this article from Joe Kissell explains in excellent detail some of the challenges that IM presents to my way of dealing with the world.
From considerable reading and from personal experience, I’ve learned that introverts have a number of other tendencies. And taken together, these traits may shed some light on why I (and numerous other introverts I know) have a hard time with IM, Twitter, and the like. For example, introverts typically need to concentrate on just one thing at a time, and are often particularly sensitive to interruptions and distractions.
Another typical introvert trait is wanting to compose one’s thoughts carefully before sharing them (either verbally or in writing). Once again, while this doesn’t prevent me from carrying on verbal conversations at a normal speed, it makes rapid-fire online textual conversations rather unnerving. For me, interacting with other people in real time online is just as draining as interacting with other people in person. So my feelings about participating in, say, a lively multi-person chat are about the same whether we’re talking about iChat or a party. I can hold my own in the conversation and it’s generally fine, but because it takes a lot of energy I prefer not to do it very often.
The whole article is definitely worth a read.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:24:16
i love this post! I AM SUCH AN INTROVERT. “particularly sensitive to interruptions and distractions” = me. “wanting to compose one’s thoughts carefully before sharing them” = me. “interacting with other people is draining” = me, me, ME. you, of course, have known this forever. it’s not always easy to see oneself clearly.
April 10th, 2008 at 16:30:13
[…] reading Rusty’s entry about introverts and IM (yeah, I don’t even have an IM program anymore) I wanted to see my whole Keirsey temperament […]