Blogging is a way to promote yourself and your ideas. By regularly publishing creative output, you put yourself out for ongoing scrutiny. But what if you aren’t the type of person who likes to do that? Is there an inherent contradiction between the practice of blogging, and social media in general, and introversion? Does it make sense to put yourself into the public eye? What’s the benefit?
Background
A number of months ago I wrote The Mighty Introvert, a blog devoted to the introversion personality types. My mission, at the time, was to try to show the world that introverts could do well in social media. I wrote 27 posts before ending that particular project. I managed to find a few ways that introverts could engage in social media, including more passive things like social bookmarking.
My passion for blogging about introversion ran out of steam in January 2008 and that blog is on hiatus. Shutting down that project allowed me to put more energy into Broadcasting Brain and the results to date have greatly exceeded my 2008 goals (subscriber count and Technorati rating, FYI). So that’s very cool.
But I do feel like I’m being pulled out of shape at times.
The inherent conflict in blogging for introverts
In order to be an interesting writer, you’ve got to put something of yourself in your writing, whether it’s relevant personal anecdotes, humor, or even talking about your passion. Letting your personality shine through, whether or not you’re a nice person, helps people connect with you.
Compared to other bloggers I don’t let a lot of personal details shine through. Here are a few examples:
- I don’t give out a lot of personal details about my family, mainly to maintain our privacy.
- I don’t talk about my day job for a couple of reasons:
- My day job doesn’t have anything to do with social media.
- My employer, although it is a large multi-national corporation, is a family-owned business which values its privacy and has fairly limited, focused means to contact the “outside world”. Therefore, I don’t talk about my employer in my blog.
- I’m the Marlboro Man. Well, not really. I don’t smoke and I’m not big on the outdoors. Don’t like to talk much ‘bout myself, though.
So what’s in it for me?
Despite the negative picture that I’ve painted in the preceding section, I’m going to look at the things that have attracted me to social media and that keep me coming back:
Interact with like-minded individuals and explore new worlds – when you live in a small community it can be hard to find other people that share your interests, especially when they lie outside of the mainstream media. Social media, including blogging, provides an untold number of ways that we can hear from individuals from around the world who share our interests.
Self-actualization and creative expression – there are a lot of introverts who indulge in the creative arts and use them to their advantage. Would you believe that people like Ton Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Steve Martin are examples of introverts? It’s true! Clearly people will try to achieve things despite their personality type. And introversion doesn’t equal shyness; it just means that a person has a need for solitude and privacy.
Develop new opportunities – networking is a must in today’s world and social media allows me to broaden the group of people that I interact with. At the same time, my blog serves as a continually updated online portfolio of my writing.
The joy of learning – I like to learn about new things and the hyperlink provides a huge number of signposts to interesting new destinations.
Is it worth it?
Despite the challenges, the occasional discomfort and frustration, the answer is yes. It’s worth it. Social media and blogging is a fascinating field. It’s not likely that it will solve the world’s problems or revolutionize business all by itself. The magic of social media, if there is any, is simply in its ability to let people connect and share ideas more easily than ever. It allows us to build bridges to connect our individual islands and to find each other.
Once we make contact, then it’s up to us to use those opportunities wisely. In a sense the tools we use are irrelevant, they are merely gateways to further activity. However, those tools do allow us to come together, regardless of who or what we are. That’s powerful stuff.
The web is a great way for introverts to interact in many ways, including some older methods like email and forums. In the physical world, it would be almost impossible to run a successful business and make good money as an introvert. You would have to deal with too many people (unless you're also just a crank, then you can be cranky and everyone expects it). But online, your interactions are mediated by the technology.
For introverts, attending live events is like getting dropped into ice-cold water. This is still an issue because a lot of high-quality networking and advancement happens at live events.
The thing us, many of us who have learned to function in the business world can do the live events, although we can be selective about the bits and pieces that we take in. I've attended different kinds of conferences and they can be fun, but if I need a bit of quiet time then I'll vanish for a bit, as needed.
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