Pseudo introverts

I have been mulling over the two successive posts I wrote about introverts and extroverts in connection with Susan Cain's book, ever since Shilpi suggested that I should mention that pseudo-introverts exist just as pseudo-extroverts do. And I think she is right. A lot of people do pretend to be introverts because of this silly notion that if they are solemn and aloof most of the time, others will be impressed by them as thoughtful and wise people. 

This is certainly not a new phenomenon. Shakespeare warns in The Merchant of Venice (Act I, sc. i) that only fools try to impress other fools that way. And one of my favourite quotes from Bertrand Russell is a fixture on the other blog, 'I should not be thought to be serious only when I am solemn'. But maybe the tendency has been aggravated in this age of the internet, where everybody is desperate to project some sort of 'impressive' self on social media, and some - a significant number - of people feel that pretending to be introverted (which has been in their minds made synonymous with 'clever', which is actually very far from the truth, as an old boy, Subhashis Chakraborty, has rightly pointed out) would make them a little more impressive than they actually are. Shilpi says that it is a very common thing in academia, and she should know, having spent a whole decade at a famous university. But I see such people all around me too, even among teenagers, and widely among people above forty, especially among Bengalis (aantel is a disparaging term invented by Bengalis themselves for this type). It is fairly easy to make out who is faking it, though. A true introvert will not be gushing all the time on twitter, or be more interested in shoes and clothes and dancing and selfies than in books and mathematics and hard sustained thinking of any kind, and there are many other markers which I would rather not discuss in public. But if you want to know how to catch them out, you can talk to me.

One last thing in this context. Merely being able to categorize people into the introvert-extrovert binary does not make you a know-all. Ms. Cain has over-exaggerated the importance of this one way of judging people, as anybody with a favourite hobby horse will. The human personality is far too complex for that. Those who are really interested are welcome to read the chapter called On Personality Development in my own book, To My Daughter. They might be led on a very rewarding voyage of discovery, and motivated to read many more important books by many different scholars on this most interesting of all subjects.