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Instant Messaging For Introverts

Posted by kdawson on from the jung-nailed-it-before-meyers-and-briggs dept.

adamengst tips an article up on TidBITS that explores the persistent reluctance of many nerds to embrace fully new communications media such as IM and Twitter. In this thoughtful article Joe Kissell explores, from the inside, the mind of the introvert and how this personality style often struggles with new "always-on" media. The result is a sometimes exasperated incomprehension on the part of the more extroverted. Well worth a read.

10 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Not necessarily introverts by iBod · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anyone who wants or needs to concentrate suffers from the constant barrage of interruptions from this 'always on' technology.

    IM, Cellphones, SMS etc. It seems to be expected now that everyone should be instantly contactable, at any time, for the most trivial of communications.

    I'm not an introvert, but prefer to be uninterrupted unless it's something really important.

    I annoy people by not playing the game, by turning off my cellphone, not running an IM client (unless I want to specifically talk to someone), only checking my email twice a day etc.

    The constant jabbering and twittering that surrounds us now really pisses me off. QUIET please!

    1. Re:Not necessarily introverts by v1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not entirely on topic but people need to learn to live without their cell phones. A few people I know, anywhere they go, anything they're doing, their phone is ringing. usually several times. And they always have to answer it. We can be playing a multiplayer game and they'll just stop playing to answer the phone, sometimes costs us the game.

      No amount of heckling them about their constantly having to answer the phone seems to help.

      "I have to answer it. What if it's an important call? What if my wife just got in a car accident or something?" You can't reason with them.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    2. Re:Not necessarily introverts by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Funny

      How thoughtless of them! What could possibly be more important than a multiplayer online game?

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    3. Re:Not necessarily introverts by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

      What if it's an important call? What if my wife just got in a car accident or something? That's why I have an established emergency protocol with my family members. If they call and I don't answer the phone, I'm busy, so leave a voice or text message. If it's an emergency, either put 911 in your callback number or 911 in your text message.
      --
      My blog
    4. Re:Not necessarily introverts by artg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More to the point : what could possibly be more important than paying attention to the people you're with ?
      And what could possibly be more rude than to temporarily ignore them to accept an interruption ?

  2. Re:introverts and IM by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know a lot of people that are socially very shy in public, that practically live in IM or WOW etc.

    Shyness and introversion are two different things. Introversion is a preference for being alone. Shyness is when somebody feels anxiety around other people.

    IM and other virtual communication can be good at alleviating the anxiety shy people feel, enabling them to socialise frequently, but it isn't going to do anything for an introvert who doesn't want to socialise frequently.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  3. Re:Sorry but the first half of that long post by paganizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not too well written, I agree; but thats the first time I've read something that kinda explains to me my own feelings about IM.
    I've currently got problems with it. I leave Skype on full time these days for Biz purposes, and my GF wants to pop up a chat window every 10 freaking minutes, breaking my concentration, effectively ending my ability to do any meaningful work; I end up just surfing instead of trying to do anything, because I know I'm just going to get interrupted anyway.

    --
    Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  4. Re:Work by value_added · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I definitely recognise myself in the article's description: I generally write 2 or 3 versions of an email before finally sending it and I really don't get on with IM-style communication.

    You mean to say you take the time and thought required to write something worth reading?

    There seems to be a trend in recent years for people to consider email another form of IM. Subscribe to mailing list with 10K users, and you'll find people repeatedly sending off unintelligible overly-abbreviated scraps of seemingly random thought without hesitation, forcing all 10K users to read and try and interpret their spew. For anyone that thinks, for example, one or more cryptic one-liners is acceptable, I'd suggest they stop and consider how many followups to followups are required when, by comparison, a coherent thought written out using complete sentences would have saved everyone both time and grief in almost all cases.

    Too much trouble or time to bother with? See how well you can communicate with your significant other using postit note reminders stuck on a refrigerator door before a misunderstanding and a day spent stewing over a perceived insult occurs.

    IM has its place and is no doubt useful (invaluable, even) in certain scenarios. If you accept that it's the quality of communication that matters, then the pervasive influence of IM can be characterised fairly as somewhere between an unfortunate habit and a disease. Not that there's ever been a golden age of electronic communication, of course. I do wonder how it is, though, that in a form of communication that's entirely written, people don't hesitate to offer the impression that they're either morons, or complete illiterates.

    My use of IM has devolved into occasional replies of "This is worth discussing. Call me when you have time and we'll take it up then." The rest is noise. No point in trying to do accomplish something when neither party has the time to deal with it, is there?

  5. Re:Sorry but the first half of that long post by R2.0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I carpool with a guy that is going through an amicable divorce that is turning messier by the day. She communicate a LOT by text message - not "Pick up some milk" but "I think we should go to counseling" and "I hate you and I never want to talk to you again". Texting has given her the ability to vomit out all her surface thoughts without the burden of reflection or instant feedback from a face to face conversation. Lovely.

    --
    "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  6. Re:Sorry but the first half of that long post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Interrupts your work AND doesn't go down well?

    Get a new GF imo.