“Shyness: Evolutionary Tactic?” is an article written in The New York Times newspaper. Susan Cane wrote the article in June 2011.The article used a variety of techniques to illustrate her point such as examples, sources, and new definitions. Cain writes about shyness, introversion, social anxiety disorder, and extroversion. She compares introversion to extroversion. We need equally kinds of people in society. In my experience, people display both characteristics at the same time. The article shyness and evolutionary tactic is an interesting article because the current social judgment favors extroverts but does a disservice to introverts who also make important contributions to sociality. There is a tendency in American society today to have a bias against for anyone who is not gregarious, upbeat, part of the crowd or in the spotlight There are people who on the outside are not sociable, because these people are shy. However, there is a difference between shyness and introversion. Shy people often avoid many things because they are nervous or they criticize themselves for speaking up. Introverts, however, will not be nervous or criticize themselves. Both shyness and being introverted are acceptable traits. It only becomes a problem when a person has a social anxiety disorder that significantly interferes with a person’s life. We want and need people to be the quiet thinkers who can go off by themselves come up with an idea and bring it back to a
Leslie A. Gordon describes an introvert as a person who is unwilling to speak out thoughts or feelings freely. She further says," introverts gain energy from quiet reflection and solitude. They tend to think before they speak, take a deliberate approach to risk and prefer listening. While not necessarily shy or anxious in social settings, they're usually not comfortable in groups. Introverts are energized by focusing deeply on a subject or activity that truly interests them and may become overwhelmed in stimulating environments”(Gordon). She means that introverts can be described as shy and spend most of their time alone. They don’t like being around people, especially large crowds. They are mistakenly judged as individuals
Shy? Or Social Anxiety DIsorder? In the essay, “Shyness: Evolutionary Tactic?” Susan Cain, the author clear her point and tell the readers the difference between shyness and introverts, stitter and rovers and she has also given great example that prove her point and which make the essay clear by the examples.In the essay the author, Susan Cain, have used so many rhetorical strategies which makes the essay more clear and more understanding but the main three strategies which was used by the author in this essay, and which was perfectly used was definitions, facts and compare and contrast.
Susan Cain’s “Power of Introverts” talk was all about the importance of people who are considered introvertly inclined in our society. In her talk, she described first how her family influenced her in being an introvert. Reading is her family’s social activity and that one can roam around through his or her own imagination. She also discussed about her memorable summer camp story where she has discovered the way extrovert people live and tried to shift in this kind of life. With all these changes in her life she never left her introverted life and espoused the ideas that when it comes to creativity and leadership, the society needs introverts and the things where they excel most. She explained that introversion is how one responds to stimulation including social stimulation which is different from a person being shy – the fear of social judgment.
In her book Quiet Susan Cain explains that, much like our ideal appearance or ideal economic status, there is also an ideal that extroversion is the socially acceptable way of conversing, interacting and behaving in our society. The argument posed by Cain in Quiet is that everyone is different and often we have introverts forcing themselves to become something they innately “are not” in order to feel/appear socially successful.
Susan Cain author of the book “Quiet” gives off a very interesting quote in the front cover of the book, and gives the reader a good focus on what “Quiet” is mainly about “Quiet, The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop talking.” Cain wants to show just from a title that extroverts are the ideal that people from the western culture idolized, she speaks highly in the book “Quiet” how introverts are seen as a “second class personality trait”, and the extrovert ideal is praised more ad seen as people who are go getters; who are smarter, better looking people, and fun.. Cain uses herself as an example in the book “Quiet” to show that introverts are not just shy people, who are unattractive. She argues and proves there is more than an extrovert ideal, introverts ! Proving her arguments and facts she parts the book into four.
Growing up an introvert was hard; I would always be the kid who sat in the back and kept her head down waiting for class to end trying to skip out on having to share. Everything about speaking to groups of people was slightly terrifying for me. Whether it was reading my answers out loud in class or even presenting a project to a crowded room it would cause me to have anxiety. I was always like this until my senior year of high school. Senior year truly helped me break out of my shell.
In Quiet, Cain classifies introversion as a temperament that prefers low stimulation, works slowly and deliberately, and gain energy from solitude; extroversion is the opposite, with an inclination for high stimulation, fast living, and constant socializing. In Part One: The Extrovert Ideal, Cain examines the cause and effect of the rise of extroversion in America. According to Cain, America used to be a culture based on character that shifted into a culture revolving around personality. Not just any personality, the American ideal became a gregarious, friendly persona that was an eloquent speaker and sparkling individual. Cain researched a vastly successful individual, Harvard Business School, and an evangelical megachurch with similar results and observations: it was assumed that to be a leader and make any headway in life, one must be an extrovert. However, neither introvert nor extrovert is more suited to leadership, but rather it depends on other factors unique to each situation. Extroversion does not make one a better leader, or a success. In fact, introversion has a key strength when it comes to leadership and the workplace: introverts have the ability to master a skill, focus on one project until fruition, and basically spend hours achieving better results than the more flighty extrovert. Introverts possess an endurance and persistence that extroverts may
According to Susan Cain, the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking a, “colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness” is wasted when the abilities of introverts are devalued. Her book argues that modern Western Culture has transformed in a culture of personality in which the “extrovert ideal” overshadows introversion. The latter is commonly viewed as inferior; an ideal Cain completely shatters in her well-researched analysis of both temperaments.
We are “Blinded” from society. You may not know who to trust until you met that one person that you can actually trust. Be different or a Conformist either way is better. In our world we need a balance of “Nonconformist and Conformist” people to make this world go round.
By using a strong textual bias to empower the introvert, the impact of the book resulted in a dramatic shift in our understanding of personality. The introvert is encouraged and cultivated. However, the extrovert is not devalued whatsoever. As an introvert, Cain expected to yearn for a “world of the highly sensitive, a world in which everyone speaks softly.” (154). However, her research and her experiences only led to an overwhelming desire for balance, the harmony and mutual encouragement of introverts and extroverts. Her success can be seen in the overwhelmingly positive reception and praise of the
I was also a very shy person in school, so I did not try to socialize outside of my friend group. I was very content to stay within those friends, which is now something I wish I could change. I am not sure how much I could change my current bias if I had been more outgoing, but
Since kindergarden, I have thought my personality. I forced myself out of my comfort zone time and time again by trying to talk to people and joining in conversations I had no interest in or things that I was not knowledgeable about. However, these efforts quickly proved of no help to me, all it did was drain me of energy and left me confused about myself and my personality. My peers still called me quiet and also shy some even referencing my apparent aversion to socializing. As I am beginning my senior year of high school, I started to consider introversion and how it is perceived and treated by society. Eventually, I these “myths” that are perceived by society that extroverts and ambiverts (those with characteristics of both introverts and
Sociobiology is to study scientific examination for evolutionary explanations for social behaviors within species. The general focus of sociobiology is examining certain typical human behaviors and how they arise. In species other than humans complex behaviors can be accounted for in terms on natural selection and other process of biological evolution. These behaviors had a genetic basis that could be part because these behaviors had a genetic basis, they developed through the mechanism of natural selection.
As mentioned earlier, a higher level of social development does not correlate to how outgoing or extroverted a person may be. I interviewed a 20-year-old college student (B) who finds himself to be highly introverted and more reserved. B enjoys being in the company of other people, but felt that having time alone was a priority. Growing up he was bullied in school and the social interaction he encountered were frequently negative. His peers would make jokes about him and criticize his behaviors. He believes that for most of middle school and part of high school, these people influenced how he thought about himself and this, in turn, affected how he would interact with people. Overtime, B developed better listening skills and awareness in social
According to many psychologists and other social experts, there exist two major social behaviors that are widely adopted globally by a person as they mature into young adulthood: extraversion or introversion. Extroverts are expressive individuals who appear to be energized and enjoy seeking activities that involve socialization with others where as a reserved individual (introvert) prefers solitary pursuits where he or she often partakes in a favorite pastime. In her novel Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength, Laurie Helgoe statistically explores the fact that more than one half of the American populace claims to be reticent and encourages those folks to embrace their natural selves (“Book Details” 1). Introverts