I woke up this morning to a little informational video about introversion and extroversion. It had a few things to say about these two ends of a rather complex spectrum, but the bottom line - the idea behind the video - was that modern society is being pretty mean to introverts. Our society values traits like aggression, risk-taking, boldness, and social interaction very highly over traits like contemplation, focus and a careful nature.
I have personally found this to be true. I am far more proud of the outgoing aspects of my nature than the more abundant introspective traits. It isn't strange that it should be so. Modern society is highly based on social interaction and communication - the ability to form casual contacts is very important, and high social mobility means we must constantly adapt to new kinds of society. It is no accident that the hero of our times is the con-man, the pick up artist, the audacious social explorer.
The video I saw said that, as extroversion or introversion are part of our genes, to discriminate based on these traits it is equal to racism and sexism, and here is where I found myself disagreeing. There is a fallacious logic in racism or sexism that does not seem to apply here; race or sex is not inherently tied to behaviour. Introversion is, by its very definition. And so, perhaps, it may be argued that introversion is doomed to go the way of the dinosaurs; it is an outlived phase of human evolution. At best, it is a disability to be cured.
Should we "cure" people of contemplation, focus, and a quiet nature? Why not? The traits are far less useful than the ability to interact openly. This applies, seemingly, in all strata of society.
So here it is, then, an argument for eugenics. Introverts, including myself, are rapidly becoming fossils, remarkably out of place in the Facebook age. Evolution has a way of handling things on its own, of course - so there is no need to actually remove people from the gene pool - but when a behaviour is harmful, we also have no reason to interfere when it naturally diminishes or dies out.
Then this is the argument, distilled to its cold, Darwinian core:
Introverted people are disappearing. Let them.
6 kommentarer:
What proof is there that introverts are disappearing, I wonder? How did you come to that conclusion?
Well, I don't have proof, exactly - but if the original video I watched is to be believed, introverts are heavily discriminated against which leads them to unfavorable situations.
So I guess they're not disappearing so much as drifting into the lower strata of society.
I don't think that's really applicable. Most people have a variety of introvert and extrovert qualities. We are then encouraged by society to develop and display mostly the extrovert qualities, but the introvert ones will still be there if we need them. Much like how we are taught to be pacifists, but are quite capable of violence when needed.
Also, I believe in the theory that most of our personality is determined by genes, and it will take a long while before evolution has removed introvertism from humanity.
The argument is simply that we need not try to work to preserve introvert traits, as they are useless. It'll take a long time before they vanish entirely from the gene pool, sure, I'm just saying there's no point in fighting the trend.
I also question the assumption that all introvert traits, in all forms, are useless in our society (or will be very soon).
Sure, we put more emphasis on extrovert traits now than we did 100 years ago, but what about 200 years ago? Or longer than that?
There are a lot of introvert traits that are essential to our society today. At least by my definition. Things like contemplation and an analytic mindset are vital for natural sciences. Patience.
Not all people possess them. I dare say that there has not ever been a point in human existence when all humans had these traits.
Interestingly, most of the qualities that I would brand introvert are essential to become successful in most sports, and we worship athletes. Sure, the extrovert ones like Usain Bolt get much more attention, but we're still extremely impressed by the "strong silent type".
I don't see any evidence that introverts are disappearing, or that their traits are useless. We're just in a phase, or trend if you like, when people are encouraged to display their most extrovert qualities. Doesn't mean that people lack introvert traits, they're just very hard to see. After all, introvert traits are by their very nature quite stealthy.
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