Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

I also feel like maybe they have more questions than they can handle. (I love you all, writers, but I haven't had a question not go over in a loooong time.)

Most of the overdue questions are answered, but someone has a placeholder that's keeping it from being posted.

UffishThought wrote:Are you guys looking for more readers? When I was there I felt like we always had more questions than we could handle--advertising for more was the last thing on my mind.

This might be my hipster showing, but I always thought that the primary appeal of the Board was its semi-secret cabal-ness.

In light of that question, I redid the MBTI. I am:

ISFJ
Introvert(33%) Sensing(1%) Feeling(12%) Judging(78%)

However, I found an old thread, where I was

INFJ
Introvert(22%) Intuitive(62%) Feeling(50%) Judging(89%)

Looks like I'm mostly becoming more... normalized? Except introversion. I SWEAR I am getting less introverted, but apparently not.

Well, it's always possible that you know yourself better than the test knows you.

I should also say, I am introverted more than extroverted. But I am better at putting on an extroverted face than I used to be.

I took that test once and was an ESFP and then took it two years later to become an INFJ. I think I changed a lot in those two years, but not that much.

Also, I am so tired of people defining introvert as someone who needs to be alone to re-energize. I think that's silly. The standard definition given by Google of an introvert is someone who is shy and reticent. Yet we have all these people who are way outgoing and gregarious who call themselves introverts because they like to read a good book every now and then. Sometimes I feel energized by hanging out with large crowds, sometimes with small groups, and sometimes by being by myself. What does that make me?

Unable to be labeled?

I prefer to call it a whatevert.

I think for me it's more about how I know the group rather than its size. I can be with a huge group of people for several days at a family reunion. But after three hours of church and being around lots of people whom I can't predict or don't know or whose names I've forgotten several times drains me.

Yes. This.

I think it has to do more with the sorts of relationships you prefer. Extroverts traditionally prefer quantity of relationships over quality, while introverts are the inverse. That is to say, an introvert prefers fewer but deeper relationships, an extrovert prefers more but less deep relationships.

Marduk wrote:I think it has to do more with the sorts of relationships you prefer. Extroverts traditionally prefer quantity of relationships over quality, while introverts are the inverse. That is to say, an introvert prefers fewer but deeper relationships, an extrovert prefers more but less deep relationships.

TRUTH. For me, anyway.

I know for me, being an introvert means that I genuinely just don't care to talk to people or hang out with them, save for a select view. I'm perfectly happy spending every single weekend home alone, and sometimes I'll just randomly stop texting people or facebooking them for hours on end because I just. Do. Not. Want. To. Talk. Even though I like them and was enjoying the conversation. And I find hanging out with large groups, or with new people, a stressful and exhausting idea. Even when I'm enjoying myself in such situations, it's extremely draining and the enjoyment is only superficial at best.

Marduk wrote:I think it has to do more with the sorts of relationships you prefer. Extroverts traditionally prefer quantity of relationships over quality, while introverts are the inverse. That is to say, an introvert prefers fewer but deeper relationships, an extrovert prefers more but less deep relationships.

Right. And that's not the same thing as shyness or reticence. So, regardless of how you define "introvert," we do need a word for people who (among other things) prefer a few deep relationships over a lot of casual ones.

And then there's me, who apparently prefers many deep relationships, which leaves me in a place that is confused and muddled.

Marduk wrote:And then there's me, who apparently prefers many deep relationships, which leaves me in a place that is confused and muddled.

Or . . . busy.

you're just superior at relationships

Whistler wrote:you're just superior at relationships

zing

But now we have a new definition of introvert and extrovert that needs to be backed up by the OED or something.