Starting about 10 years ago, I've lost my desire to go out and socialize, and much prefer just hanging out at home. I've attributed this to various factors. Mostly I attribute it to just getting old. (A number of people seem to have the same experience--they lose the desire to go out and party when they reach their late 30s.)
I also attribute it to me finally just embracing my introversion, For years I was young and insecure, and I was ashamed of being an introvert. Now that I'm older and settled into myself, I am not ashamed to be introverted any more. Yes, I'd rather stay home and read a book than go to a party. I've accepted this about myself. I'm not going to try to force myself to be social when I don't feel like it.
I feel like I'm done trying to fit in. I've spend my whole youth trying to fit in, and convince myself that I could (eventually) be one of the cool kids, but now I just want to stay home and read my book.
But, actually, am I actually staying home and reading a book? Or do I spend 10 minutes reading my book, and then spend 2 hours on the Internet? Am I an introvert, or am I really an Internet addict?
I want to envision myself as an intellectual--someone who would prefer to read than party--but is it books that are keeping me occupied at home, or is it the Internet. If I'm honest with myself, it's the latter.
And actually, now that I think about it, when I stopped going out and socializing about 10 years ago, that was also the same time that I was finally living in an apartment that had cable TV and free Internet. (Prior to this, I usually didn't have Internet hooked up in most of the apartments I had been living in. For various reasons--one reason being I didn't trust myself.)
When I was teaching in Vietnam, I was teaching a lot of teenagers, and I was suprised by how many of them were identifying as introverts. But I also noticed that a lot of them were permanently glued to their smart phones, and I was also beginning to suspect that a lot of them were hiding behind the label of "introvert" as a way to justify their various digital addictions. (Gaming addictions, tik-tok addictions, smart phone addictions, etc).
To what degree is it healthy to embrace an introvert lifestyle, and to what degree should we introverts still be pushing ourselves to get out there and socialize?
To what degree is it healthy to embrace an introvert lifestyle, and to what degree should we introverts still be pushing ourselves to get out there and socialize?
And is being an introvert an immutable personality trait that we get from birth, or is the Internet turning more people into introverts who might actually be extroverts.
Anyways, this Tweet appeared in my feed a couple weeks ago, and I can't stop thinking about it, so I'm going to leave it here to bookmark it for myself:
Like everything @jburnmurdoch makes, this chart is amazing.
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) August 8, 2025
The sharp decline in conscientiousness and rise in neuroticism among young people is astonishing.
But also of note: literally every age group has gotten less extroverted in the age of the smartphone pic.twitter.com/C4QrZlRjwM
It's apparently from this article here, which I haven't read because it's behind a paywall.
Like I said, I may come back to this idea in a future post, or I may not, but for now I'm just bookmarking it for myself.
Addendum: Actually looking at the replies to this Tweet, a lot of people seem to be taking issue with the methodology behind these graphs. Perhaps this isn't really accurate, and perhaps I'm wasting my time by linking to it. I don't know.
