Introverts Have NOT Taken Over the World
Let’s critically consider a purported trend. Is it real? Is it being described accurately?
Sometimes I want to throttle media editors who write misleading headlines and coin cool-sounding but misconceived trends. In January, for instance, a Bloomberg headline announced that “Introverts Have Taken Over the US Economy.” The article reported several interesting post-pandemic behavioral changes in the US.
I don’t doubt the research findings. However, I not only doubt but also reject the article’s interpretation of the research, because it relies on harmful stereotypes of introverts. Summed up in the phrase “The Introvert Economy,” this unwarranted interpretation of the research unfortunately gained some currency. Google shows hundreds of other news stories or blog posts discussing the trends under that label.
Here are a few of the research items cited in the Bloomberg article:
Since the pandemic, adults under age 50 are going out earlier in the evening than before.
Younger adults are also less likely to drink than in the past.
In New York City, 5:30 is now a more popular restaurant reservation time than 8:00 – a significant reversal.
From 2003 to now, the number of hours Americans over age 18 spend going out on weekends has dropped significantly.
All in all, according to the article, more time at home makes Americans “less fun.”
Calling all this a “stay-at-home” trend or even a rise in “stick in the mud” behavior would not bother me. But summarizing it as Americans becoming more introverted is inaccurate and offensive. It’s inaccurate in that going out earlier rather than later, not drinking much and spending less time socializing do not indicate a personality change in the population. Perhaps people are partying like mad at home! Also inaccurate is the implication that going out to eat early, drinking less and staying at home more are characteristic of introverts.
The article is offensive in implying that having fun should involve late nights at restaurants and bars. On the contrary, people have legitimately different notions of what counts as fun. (Indeed, if you’ve never had great fun in your own bedroom or someone else’s, then I feel sorry for you.) And the piece is ridiculous in implying that the reported behavioral changes show that introverts have any more power, influence or respect in American society than before, or as compared with extroverts.
An article on Motley Fool piggybacking on the Bloomberg piece warned readers working at home and living alone to watch out for sliding into “goblin mode”: “a pattern where you stop showering, you stop exercising, you stop engaging with the world outside your four walls.” It also cited the danger of “self-isolating” to the point of losing touch with loved ones and suffering mental health problems. Let’s remember, though, that anything can be taken to excess – including drinking, staying out late and spending lots of money in restaurants.
Tara McMullin, author of What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting, notes that there’s an undercurrent of shaming in these articles, due to the anti-capitalist implications of the noted trends. “People who are content to stay home and read a book or call it a night early to get in a full night's sleep or drink soda without the gin to avoid a hangover the next day are bad for business,” she writes. “They might be less exploitable workers. They might be less gullible consumers.”
Media editors work under constant pressure to post stories that get read, forwarded, recommended and commented on. All the more reason to keep your wits about you as you read, listen or watch the news.
