If you are to consider your personality for a minute and tell someone about yourself, you will find it easy to identify as an introvert or an extrovert. There is nothing wrong with identify yourself as any of these since they can be used to rate your interpersonal relationship. In a global world set up that is defined by social interactions through the internet, we can now harmonize the two personality traits.
Initially, the advent of the internet came as an addition to the existing physical presence of a person, institution or organization. Today, the internet is positioning itself strategically as a basic need. A majority of us live online. Some of use live in delusion. We can now buy and sell online, book appointments and arrange our travels and accommodations, meet new people online, date online, read your favorite books online, air your opinions and views, celebrate life with friends and work.
Social Distance
The corona virus pandemic was a blessing in disguise for the internet community. With the pandemic came unprecedented and tremendous innovations that placed the internet at the very palms of our hands. Physical social distance is still the healthiest way to keep friends and self safe during these unhealthy times. How did you keep in touch with family and friends?
Social media is the biggest digital platform on the internet. Thanks to the efforts of the founders. Without a doubt, it is a part of our reality. It is an obsession that even comes with depression. For instance, there is this person who has made it a habit of checking out the WhatsApp statuses of every person in their contact list every morning when they wake up. They laugh at the hilarious memes posted by different people, screenshot a few to re-share later and then hop into Facebook.
Scrolling through the timelines you meet different people up to different amazing things. Others sharing amazing poses and memories that Facebook reminded them of. By the way, Facebook memories of you can cause a bright smile than many people can wish on you. Maybe this is the reason why many people tend to share only the good stuff on their social media platforms. As you scroll through the Facebook posts from different people, groups and pages; you leave a trail of likes, comments (sometimes uncalled for), reactions and dislikes. This cements your place as a social able person.
The Narratives
During the course of the day, an urge to check on what is happening around the world envelops you. We rarely look for newspapers unless we are packing a bar of soap. They do not use them at my local butchery no more. A blogger has the narrative that you seek. They do not have to be credible on the ink but their Twitter followers can offer you confidence. I realized based on a past conversation that people tend to believe the written word of a tweep as a source of information. Yes, it is. It can be a credible source of information or misinformation. Consider the role of so called influencers.
Influencers play a key role in pushing tags and trends on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. Twitter has a band of shy influencers who champion the keyboard warriors’ battalion. In most cases, these are the social introverts that have assumed a digital extrovert’s personality. They freely engage different people and organizations through their posts, comments and reactions.
The use of a limited number of words has been essential in the development of this personality. I heard someone say that some Twitter users have created pseudo accounts that reply to a person’s affiliate accounts and con their followers into believing that their engagements through comments, likes and retweets are high. That’s a beggars’ mentality.
Finally, I heard an Instagram user quip that people on Instagram are always ‘on drip.’ It may be true but drip doesn’t respect the weather. The weather plays into the drip. Don’t let your eyes cheat you into believing everything that you see. It takes both ways to figure out a coin. On the caption is another digital tag line that begs for a like, comment or reaction. Is it hard to realize that we are digital extroverts now?
I met someone that identified as an introvert. They rarely made new friends or met anyone new in the ‘real’ world. Simply, they are scared of face to face conversation and prefer a text via WhatsApp. It was easy to imagine but hard to fathom. Since we couldn’t hold a meaningful conversation based on her identified weakness, I gave her my number so that she could text and talk her language of convenience. She surely can speak her mind but on a global platform.
Have a social Day!
By Calpas
The Good Vibes Done
