Quick – do you prefer talking to your friends or being alone?
Do you like connecting with your family or browsing social media?
I’m guessing that you thought “both” for these questions. You probably thought “Eh, it depends on the circumstances. Depends on time of day, and how I’m feeling at the given moment.” You probably saw visions of yourself on either side of the coin.
It can be tough to identify whether you’re an overall introvert or extravert. Unfortunately, our culture sees this as binary and you must choose between one or the other. Which one do you gravitate mores towards? Once you choose your side, you’re left with reservations as you knowingly harbor qualities of both. You lay awake at night torn as to what your ‘vert’ identity is.
Never fear, folks; for this is the digital age and there is this swell new distinction called AMBIVERT! This type of human exhibits qualities of extras and intros. Feeling indecisive? Simply choose the ambivert option and enjoy your safe fence-sitter status. You are a hybrid of a human being. You gain energy from other people and from being alone. You’re always gaining energy, no matter what! Your power grows exponentially by the second, your skin glows from its radiance, and soon you shall conquer the Earth.
Okay, I may have gotten a bit sarcastic there. But my point is, everyone is an ‘ambivert.’ Extra & introversion is a spectrum in which everyone falls somewhere between the two. Every extravert likes a bit of quiet time, and every introvert likes to get social occasionally. You definitely fall somewhere between the two, just like the people sitting on either side of you. The difference, however, is that your scale may be tipped towards the opposite end of someone else.
Phew, that was quite the theory and I hope it made sense to you. It mostly made sense to me. Today, I challenge you to approach someone and tell them “You are the most incredibly ambiverted individual I’ve ever seen!” It will make their day.
BoweryJE22
I think pretty much everybody falls in the ambivert category- it just depends on the circumstances. I’m fairly introverted, but that doesn’t mean that I’m always by myself or that I don’t ever like being with people. Excellent post (10/10 on the sarcasm)!
I would agree that everyone exhibits both introverted and extroverted tendencies. In that regard, all people are ambiverts. However, some people typically display characteristics of one side (i.e. introvert or extrovert) far more than the other and can therefore more appropriately identify with that extreme than they can with the neutrality of the ambivert.