Howard: Another major introvert here: when I make a talk to thousands of people and I am staying in the same hotel so I have literally hundreds of social interactions, I find that I need to recharge my energy by spending time in my room. When the spotlight is on, I will perform with authentic energy. But I am not drawn to the spotlight. I’ve thought about this a lot over the years and concluded that although I am an introvert in the sense that interacting with many people is an expenditure of energy rather than an influx of energy, I am very sociable. So I spend a great deal of time communicating with many people via social media. Something about being physically alone and in control of the circumstances of online interaction removes the factor that causes face to face interaction to be somewhat draining of my energy. I think there’s room for more research in this regard. Am I choosing to relate to people on a more superficial level, or am I using the affordances of social media to adjust my comfort level with social interactions?

LikeLike