Why does a lot of media portray introverts as needing to be coddled?

I don't really play into the introvert vs extrovert debate, but I notice so many articles and things in the media consist of "Ways to better understand introverts", "How to not annoy introverts", "How extroverted managers can get their introverted employees to adapt more to the job"and most of these articles just paint introverts as these brilliant mind reading butterflies who must deal with the uncivilized sheep ho actually enjoy socializing and speaking their mind.

And people wonder why everyone has such lame social skills these days. I agree people lean to one side, but a part of being an adult is utilizing the best qualities of both. I just notice a lot of so called introverts who feel entitled that they take to the internet to just blast everyone who has ever said hey to them and simultaneously wonder why they don't have friends outside of face book likes.

How much do you want to bet that most of those wimps asking for safespaces at school and work are introverts? They've been coddled their whole lives. There is only so much liberal arts and gender studies can do to prepare them for the real world. It's safe news. Most people won't give a shit or even notice.

we just want to go to work, do our job, then go home and have our version of fun. my spare time is spent fishing, trolling the internet, or traveling, and not worrying about petty politics and personal bullshit. But you like expressing yourself to a room full of acquaintances and it works for you, or it doesn't, and that is why you are here bitching about the quiet coworkers that would rather be anywhere else than conversing with you.

I don't think it's really an issue unless those articles are written by introverts themselves. If extroverts genuinely feel that they cannot usually understand introverts, then there's no reason to stop them from trying in their own way. However, I don't think there's anything peculiar to understand about introverts especially in a work environment. In relationships and friendships, it makes sense to be concerned with understanding others. In work, either you've found the right job for your temperament or you haven't. There's no onus on others to adjust you. You have to adjust yourself.

I think this is a baseless assumption. I'm not going to get into the safe spaces debate because there's no having an intelligent conversation about such things on GameSpot Off Topic, but it really doesn't really have anything to do with the degree to which one is extroverted or introverted. It has more to do with a person's background and it has a political element as well. GameSpot Off Topic hates safe spaces (even though they argue for their own form of safe spaces) and yet it is also filled with introverts.

I don't really think most introverts are doing this and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people writing those articles are extroverts who think they understand introverts. Really, introversion is just a personality type. It's not superior or inferior to extroversion.

Also, IMO, those article titles are not really painting introverts as "brilliant mind reading butterflies." Maybe they content of the articles does, but I'm not getting that from the titles.

Sounds like misinformed stereotyping to me.

So basically you're asking why can't introverts be more like extroverts?

Maybe people like you are the reason why those articles are written.

See what I mean, you just took it as an attack. What I was saying was that introverts are capable of handling themselves, and don't need special treatment. But all the articles are for extroverts to better make introverts feel comfortable, ill dig one up and show you.

lol of course it was baseless. I couldn't be bothered to over-generalise any further than I did. I'm an introvert and I'm sure many people here are as well. And I'm not so sure about people here hating safespaces. I mean the whole thing is just silly. I doubt there are that many reasonable and hard working individuals out there, that experience most of their life outside of their bedroom at school and/or at their workplace, that would be in favour for safespaces.

Sure, introverts are largely able to "handle themselves". The fact remains that society is extrovert-centric and introverts are not seen as the model employee/citizen. I don't think acknowledging that introverts don't fit society's ideals makes introverts "entitled".

"I just notice a lot of so called introverts who feel entitled that they take to the internet to just blast everyone who has ever said hey to them"

What you said here makes me doubt whether you know what introverted means.

Jesus you must have really thin skin to infer that from my post, you must have a tough time leaving your house. Society isnt extrovert-centric, just think logically and not entitled. People do not come to you, you have to go to them. People naturally want maximum benefit with minimum risk. That is why people prefer dogs over cats(I hate that I am about to down cats, because I am more of a cat person lol), people naturally gravitate to more open/direct/ interactions that are consistent. By you saying what you did, you are making the claim that introverts have no place in the world which is far from true and far from what I am getting. Also you are one of the ones who confuse being an introvert with being reclusive. Most healthy well balanced introverts have healthy and stable relationships and can easily speak their mind, most of the cry babies who cry and moan one second about being an introverted soul who is such a deep thinker and doesn't need people one second and then cries that no one hangs out with them the next are the ones that those lame articles that give the rest of us healthy introverts(Every assessment I have taken has categorized me as an an introvert) a bad name.

A true introvert does not feel the need to run on social media to gripe about how uncomfortable they are to leave the house, or wonder why people don't invite them to stuff. The media has this screwed up view that being an introvert suddenly makes you socially maladjusted. Because you blow people off doesn't make you an introvert it makes you a dick, becuse you don't greet people or say thank you when a stranger does something gracious it doesn't make you some social eccentric it makes you a douche. Mainly I am trying to say that I am tired of people pulling the "WAH i am an introvert victim card" or the "Wah I am socially awkward card" when people call them out on their bs.

Also if you really believe you are so introverted that it hinders your job performance then don't work that job. Welcome to the real world, there are people with actual disabilities that find a place in life, but we are supposed to feel bad because you "Can't talk to people", that is a loser mentality and I have seen it from so many of my coworkers who always under perform. Most of them aren't introverts, they are just shit people. We have had introverted presidents in the USA, talkshow hosts, business leaders, etc. Usually I get called out for being on the "Hey some people need help", but painting a lack of good social skills with the "Oh I am introverted brush" is just weak.

Congratulations on being a healthy introvert. In no way I said introverts don't have their place in their world, but society does tend to favour extroverts. I'm not mad about that; it's natural that those who put themselves out there will be more recognized. Does that mean I hate people? no. Does that mean I have a problem with extroverts? no. Does that mean I'm rude? no.

I can somewhat understand the loose association between introversion and shyness, but putting introversion and being a prick is a bit of a stretch. Nobody likes whiners, I'll give you that, but maybe you're an introvert who is relatively comfortable with small talk, putting attention on yourself and networking, but don't expect every introvert to find these activities effortless. Some disgruntled introverts do become dicks, but most of them join groups to find like-minded people and to better understand themselves.

As you mentioned, the media has an uninformed view of what introverts are, so why is it offensive to have an article about how managers can better make an introvert adapt to a job? I don't know what exactly the nature of those articles since you don't have a link, but I'm guessing a well-written article of such nature would help a manager assign introverts to tasks that are better suited for him and to understand what their preferences are to get the most out of the working environment.

I agree that some introverts are truly not fit to work in certain jobs and they don't even know. They just think that if they cannot achieve the same results as their more extroverted peers, that something must be wrong with them. There are articles that suggest what careers are ideal for introverts, but I don't know if those articles would somehow offend you. Sure, there are introvert success stories in all kinds of fields and I don't discourage any introvert to challenge themselves, but they will have to further step outside their comfort zone.

We've turned into a nation of pussies.

it's because the internet is a VAST wasteland of clickbait garbage and humankind is running out of things to write about

I think people view introverts as sensitive. They mistake introverts as "shy" or "quiet" and in turn make the assumption that there is something wrong with us, and we therefore need to be handled with care.

Pro-tip: we are all screwed up in some way. Don't fool yourself by thinking you are "normal" because you run your mouth, and someone is "abnormal" because they don't say anything or don't feel like going out clubbing.

Personally, all I want is to be left alone. I don't like extra attention or to be taken care of because close-minded people think there is something wrong with me. I just like my "Me Time" and don't say much. That's it.

most of the PC/SJW crowd I am familiar with are loudmouthed extroverts, actually. You don't demand things or make a big deal over nothing because you are introverted. If I were a betting man, I'd wager the people you are referring to are not introverts. A gay introvert is more likely to live their life in their head as a homosexual, revealing it only to close friends and family, than they are to make a scene about it and start demanding shit publicly (though they can make change privately) and telling everyone they're gay.

As for coddled, again most coddled people think their perspective on the world is generally the only one so they feel safe expressing that view out loud. Introverts are generally a bit more aware of reality and others as they are of themselves, and will keep their opinions to themselves.

Just my own perspective and experience.

Pretty much.

Some bimbo with a journalism degree can't make it at a real job and has to "blog", they write well but spew bullshit, and people tell them the first part of that and leave out the second. So they write these articles like "How to identify an introvert" or "How shy guys are actually creeps" or "My friend likes to sit and listen is social settings, what's wrong with her?" and suddenly a few hundred thousand people mistake this author for a psychologist because what they write is easy to understand.

End result? Someone's opinion is taken as fact, and the gentlest and quietest of us are stereotyped as creeps or wounded little sheep.

But at least you get to see how some '80s actors look 30 years later.

Perfectly said.

I'm about as introverted as a person gets, and I found myself with a lot of free time last quarter so I signed up for federal work study at the school library and volunteering at the local hospital on the pediatric floor. Well I do 2 weeks at the library and I have to stop going. I also only manage a few volunteer days. The sad fact is, is that when I find myself getting too extroverted, I tend to get scattered and can't focus. I need that quiet time, that alone time, for reflection, for meditation, for introspection. I need that time to ponder the mysteries of the universe, things like, "why does the outside of my house look like the inside of a lemon just threw up?" and "I think my roommate is only a couple steps away from being a giant monkey. I wonder if I can report him to Jane Goodall and claim some kind of reward." Anyway, sometimes introverts have reasons for being introverted and try as they might, they can't simply, "switch" to extroverts, at least in my experience.

I would assume the last thing a Introvert wants is for someone to pick them up and coddle them.

Maybe the media falsely assumes most people are not boorish louts who desire to willfully impose themselves on people for whom that would be unproductive? Shame on them for thinking people might desire to be respectful and willing to compromise in order to reach out to people around them who may be different?

@one_plum: @Mercenary848:

What more, said article would technically be guiding presumed extroverts towards understanding the presumed introverts more. Even more, that these would be hopefully focusing on the elements which these traits immediately impact; for what the possible manager would have to be aware of. Finally this, that (both your back and forth), my text, the text of this forum and the medium of media is all of us tapping, prodding and straight up whipping each other to signify to one another a missing piece of these observations; a blindsight, a warning, a observation unwitnessed or fact missed (if not misplaced). Such as whether I used those semicolons properly or how one would not need to be an introvert to whine nor an extrovert to be well endowed with a daft mind.

@Mercenary848:

These articles were regurgitated within you. You, who brought this to our attention, to have what is shared observed and for what reason? Well, reason would be as you would have it to be. A reason is why introverts as well as extroverts would post on facebook (if we use that scenario) and a reason would follow suit with the responses. A process with humanity weighing its own worth, with our observations brought back to the hut of the internet to be shared with the pack to be handled, to be reasoned with. To answer why the articles and facebook posts.

An introvert and a extrovert differ where they feel the most optimal and of the greatest capacity to exist and it's while nice that people have found reason to explore these elements, you two have touched well upon all the other major factors to be considered and that are influencing reasoning of it.

I've never encountered this before, but it sounds hilariously misinformed.

If I was gonna type up a post for this topic, it would pretty much be this. Especially attempting to get "too extroverted". I begin to ramble when I attempt to hold a conversation for a long time, then immediately curse myself out once I notice my rambling after the conversation ends. And its not that I can't stay focus during the conversation. It's more like I get flooded mid-conversation (Hell, even mid-sentence) with so many thoughts and words that it becomes difficult to piece what I want to say in a coherent sentence within a timely manner. So I begin rambling because I'm trying to piece words and phrases together like a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Also, this reflects my thoughts too:

spot on with the "getting too extroverted" comment lol. I have to communicate a lot at work and when I start to talk for too long, or start to realize I have a group of people listening to me for orders, I realize it and start to ramble and mumble and I, for lack of a better word, get a little weird :P

Funny thing is I think I have this innate natural confidence, but my introverted nature catches up to me before I can truly capitalize on it. There's nothing inherantly wrong with being an introvert but, as with most things, it has it's negatives and positives. I just need to find some quiet space to "recharge" then I am good to go for another awkward encounter :D