Personalities - Introvert or Extrovert?

[katyseagull]

Anacardo's thread and Utah’s comment got me thinking about this topic again.


Please answer the following:

1. Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?

2. Would you say it’s relatively easy to discern personalities on a message board?



I contend that we can't know much about each other’s real personalities based on our forum writings but I believe Anacardo sort of disagrees with me on this.


If I didn’t know better I would have originally thought that most regulars on forums are introverts based on the amount of time they spend on their computers instead of going outside. However, from the results of the personality test that a bunch of us took last year, I believe there are a ton of extroverts who post on 2+2. (I need to find that link. If you have 20 minutes to waste it’s kind of interesting stuff! I know that Cardo and I like this sort of thing [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])


So what do you guys think? What makes someone on a forum an extrovert? In your opinion, how closely are our forum personalities reflective of our real life personalities?

[Fishwhenican]

1: I think the answer depends on circumstances. With me, I tend to be very introverted, quiet, in a group of people I do not know. Once I get to know people I tend to shift to being extroverted. Also, if there is beer involved, introvert shifts to extrovert much faster!

2. I think it would be hard to really know what someone is like based on what you read on a message board. You may have an idea but I think that degree of anonymity helps someone who is normally an introvert come out of their shell a bit. Of course I do not have much to base this on since I cannot think of a time where I have actually met someone I know from a message board in person. The closest I have ever come to this is a gal I knew from another message board who was at the same poker table I was at in Vegas. We never knew we "knew" each other until later when we found out on the message board.

[Blarg]

I'd say it's very hard to pin things down on the internet. People often play out alternate lives in videogames, on chat tools like ICQ and AIM, and in forums of every and any kind. Like a drunk saying he didn't know what he's doing, I think that can be just a lame excuse, and the real person is still coming through most of the time, if only in the fact that a person chose to adopt a certain personality, and others would not make that choice. Being an internet a-hole, for instance, isn't a role disassociated from being a real a-hole. It's just being an a-hole with a really dumb excuse.

As to me being an introvert or extrovert, I'm not sure I agree with the terms. Or perhaps those terms seem to be applied too definitively to cover all situations. Maybe I'm a dead-evenvert, or, better, a situationalvert. I can be extremely introverted and extremely outgoing, depending on my feeling of security within a group, or concerns about whether being my natural, jokey self will be acceptable to a group. If people give the impression of being too stiff, humorless, or fearfully conformist, I'm sometimes at odds as to whether to break the ice or not. So in essence I make a conscious decision whether to be more or less intro/extro, and others probably do that all the time too.

[John Cole]

Hey Katy,

I'm both introverted and extroverted. How the hell did that happen, and yes, I think writing reveals personality, or at least some kinds of writing reveal personality. I might comment a bit more on this later.

[MrWookie]

I think Blarg described me pretty well, too. I fluctuate between being introverted and extroverted depending on how comfortable I am in a given situation. If I take the tests, though, I end up being described as an introvert, and I tend to describe myself that way.

As far as whether you can tell online, I think you pretty easily can, but it's not in posting styles. You can, though, just watch for people telling stories about what they've done, how they reacted, and whatnot, and it's pretty easy to tell. Katy, I was probably as surprised as you when it was said you came across like an extrovert. Sure, you make a goodly number of posts, including starting your own threads, but the stories in them, and especially how you reacted with becoming a mod, made it abundantly clear you were a shy girl.

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Katy,

I'm both introverted and extroverted. How the hell did that happen, and yes, I think writing reveals personality, or at least some kinds of writing reveal personality. I might comment a bit more on this later.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, how the hell did that happen Mr. Cole?! Please explain yourself.

So you think you can tell about a person's personality thru their forum writings? I know you can tell about their political views, movie tastes, arguing style and stuff. I also think you can tell who is "nice."

But can you tell if they are easy going, mature, sullen, jealous, etc? Can you tell if another poster is an introvert? I can't. I've thought about this for a long time. I really have no clue what the personality traits of various posters are. That's not to say I can't tell if they're nice or not. I think that I can but sometimes I even question this. I pretty much only know what their demeanor and sense of humor is like on a message board.

I guess I wonder if I have assigned personality traits to various posters because I'm projecting something onto them. For example, I have no clue what bisonbison is like in his real life but I can visualize what I think he might be like. I'm wondering if we can tell about people or if we've convinced ourselves we can tell because for some reason they remind us of someone we know [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I feel like I sound nuts now [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[katyseagull]

[ QUOTE ]

Maybe I'm a dead-evenvert, or, better, a situationalvert. I can be extremely introverted and extremely outgoing, depending on my feeling of security within a group, or concerns about whether being my natural, jokey self will be acceptable to a group.

[/ QUOTE ]


Hm, this really didn't help me visualize you any better. I was really hoping that we'd get the definitive answer once and for all. Is Blarg an introvert or is he not?!!

Ok, try this. If someone were to invite you to a party Blarg (and you too, Wookie...i would like to hear your answer to this) would you be like "Party? Cool! I'm in." or would you be like "meh. I'd rather go home and watch Pussycat Dolls and mess around on the computer."

because for me the answer is very clear. I don't even need to think about it or hear who is throwing the party. The answer is go home and be by myself.

[MrWookie]

It would depend on who was there and who was throwing it. If it wasn't really people I knew, I'd bow out. If it was just a few people I knew, esp. if I liked the host, I'd go, but I'd probably be uncomfortable. If it was a lot of people I knew, I'd go and have a good time.

[Blarg]

For me, it would be neither. More like, at least thinking to myself and not necessarily saying it, So who's going to be at the party? Where's it going to be -- somewhere fun? Formal type party or relaxed? Super-crowded or small? Am I more or less stag, or will there be other friends to talk to if everybody's just too busy to be bothered talking to me. (I hate to socially monopolize the person that invited me; if I start doing that, it's time to go home.)

Then I'd just judge on how I felt at the time. I won't go to every party, but I like going to some. However, I really like going to parties with my own transpo, because I usually know within 15 minutes or less whether I want to be around anymore. I can get bored really fast if I go to a party and everyone is just closed off.

If I had to pick a label, I'd say introvert. But these things can be tricky. For instance one of my brothers used to be the world's biggest extrovert and a booming personality; he would pwn any room he walked into with his energy and brash charm. I on the other hand was often quiet, but given to bursts of loudness; whatever charms I had wouldn't leap out and win over a room the way my brother's could.

These days, he's not as good a people person in many ways, which seems strange to me, because he's very successful and well-respected and works in a great job that has a lot of people respecting him even more and hanging on every word. Yet he seems to have lost some of his flare somehow. I didn't even notice this at first until new people I met told me they didn't think he was as dynamic as I've always thought of him. This took a while to really sink in. At the same time, some other people who used to think of me in a way I thought very one-sided at the time, as way too quiet, regard me now as much more of a crowd pleaser these days. And I think that is probably overstating things, too.

Anyway, it seems that these things can be in flux and even to the same people regarding someone, turn right around into their polar opposites.

I guess the truth is that whether a person is outgoing or not is just a really variable thing. Definitely not fully descriptive or a life sentence.

[pryor15]

i'm an introvert, but i suspect that has more to do with my literary/filmie nature than anything else. we writers tend to inherently be introverted.

as for others, i suspect it's possible to get a decent read on that depending on how people write, their phrasing, punctuation, use of ALL CAPS, acronyms (sp?), and the like.

actually, i bet you could, given the time and energy, determine if someone was intro or extroverted, based solely on their writing and without taking into account the content of what they write.