Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Shy rights: Why not pretty soon?
Apologies to Garrison Keillor for the title. What do you think about the distinction which this article makes between being shy and being introverted? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? What do you think are the advantages of each? Do you agree that our modern society favors extroversion and has a tendency to discriminate against introverts? If so, what can be done about it?
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First of all, I do not think it is possible to classify people into two groups (introverts and extroverts) according to personality, because there is no distinct line separating these two hypothetical categories. For example, I love interacting with other people, take pleasure in social events, and am pretty energetic. However, I hate standing up and talking in front of a crowd, enjoy curling up with a good book, and also have moments when I crave solitude and am annoyed if I am disturbed. To generalize and stereotype people by placing them into these two bulk classes is, in my opinion, impossible because a person reacts differently in diverse situations depending on the given circumstances.
ReplyDeleteEven given the fact that the entire human population could indeed be divided into these two personality masses, I do not agree with the points the writer raised at all. The author seemed to be consistently hinting at the fact that the competences of more outgoing people are overrated by society, which I do not think is the case at all. The capabilities of the more “introverted” people might not be known because they do not present themselves adequately, and thus it might seem that they are discriminated in various situations, but in fact I do not believe it is not so. The author of this article states that “our tolerance extends mainly to those [introverts] who get fabulously wealthy or hold the promise of doing so”. But if this were actually true, wouldn’t it be the same for extroverts as well? A company would not employ a talkative individual that is the soul of a party but does not show any promise of being a competent employee. Neither type, introverted nor extroverted, is more needed or wanted in the world. It’s the same in comparing different personality traits. I do not think it is possible to say which personality trait is more valuable in life, because each one plays a role in the actions and emotions of an individual.
Furthermore, linking the hypothetical group of extroverts with the quote “neither E=mc2 nor Paradise Lost was dashed off by a party animal” is not my idea of being unbiased. What is this if not a direct insult to so-called extroverts based on pathetic stereotyping? She wanted to make a point saying that quiet people are just as precious as the individuals that put themselves out there, and yet what she ended up doing was being a hypocrite. The writer herself complained repeatedly about the stereotyping people classified as introverts have to suffer through, yet I can’t help but feel she did the same towards the group of individuals that are labeled as extroverts by members of the society like her.
The idea of shy rights reminds me greatly of an article, posted in this blog a while ago, concerning the possibility of rights for unattractive people. It annoys me sometimes how some individuals have the constant need to point out that another person has some advantage over them, when they could actually direct all that energy into doing something worthwhile. Then, they would see that the possible advantage the attractiveness, personality type, gender, race and other classification makes is, in my opinion, already miniscule compared to the true capabilities of that person.
I consider myself being an extrovert. I generally enjoy other people's company, embarrassing myself (in a funny way, asking locals to lend me a cow for example) and unlike Jana I have no problem with speaking to crowds. It is true that I was an introvert back in elementary school, but I managed to change (thanks to maths believe it or not). I have to say that extrovert life is easier and also much more fun. You might say that I find it fun because I am natural extrovert, and you may be right. However I am not any kind of party animal and I have no problems with spending all evening just by myself (and video games). This means that this “extrovert” issue is much more complicated and we must not allow ourselves to fall into binary thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt may be true that introverts get discriminated in jobs, but stupid people are too. You might say that this is a false analogy, but let me explain. In free market, there is only one thing that depends when you are being interviewed: benefit you can bring to the company. If interviewers can't distinguish between incompetent extrovert and competent introvert, they are lousy interviewers. Being extrovert is beneficial to these discriminating firms and this is why they do not employ introverts (by now, you will probably be able to see my analogy). This means that even if introverts have “lousier” jobs, it is because it is reasonable (and I suppose that same goes for women).
Even if there could be any laws to protect shy people, it would be not natural to enforce them. I mean that it may look unjust that introverts have generally a worse place in the society, but this is because it is natural. By natural I mean that introverts are product of evolution. Our society needs at least some portion of it being shy. Don't ask me why, even I have no idea, but since there are shy people ant they were there, it probably has some reason. Enforcing these (hypothetical) laws would also be a kind of positive discrimination, also somewhat (I dare to say) racist. Just because they are different, why should we give them better chance? I have always trusted to equality of chances (not equality of people though) and thus any form of laws involving those chances are against my beliefs.
In my comment, I am going to mainly talk about the discrimination of shy people when it comes to jobs, hiring and interviews.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely true that people that are more quiet and do not really enjoy communicating with others are slightly discriminated when it comes to hiring. There is a sort of weird situation going on here so I am finding it hard to actually put into words what I am trying to say. Basically (as either Jana of Milan said, I am not sure which one it was I sort of read the two comments as one huge chunk) the employer should look past the personality and ignore whether a person is an introvert or not. People are born with a certain personality. Isn't that the whole concept of fighting discrimination? To make sure people do not have different standards according to the way they were born and because of factors they cannot influence?
I do not think that people who are shy should have a harder time finding a job, just because they are not talkative and have trouble fitting into a group. But on the other side, I find it absolutely logical, that an employer would not hire a shy person. The reason is this. Now the rest of this paragraph might be a little exaggerated, but the point should be clear from it. Imagine a huge group of scientists, working on finding a cure for cancer. They are being funded by their employer and use up a large amount of money for research. The employer is hoping to find a cure and happens to have employed a very very shy person in the past. When I say very very shy, I mean very very shy. He does not talk to anyone, does his own work separated from the others and the other scientists barely know he is there. Now imagine that this shy person comes up with something very promising, something that, if studied further, would have led to finding the cure. for ALL types of cancer. Now he would have to talk to the others, show them his findings and continue working with them. But would he do so? What if he simply decided it was not worth it talking to the other people. He would simply be terrified of it and he might even convince himself, that what he came up with is not really worth mentioning to the others.
I think you see my point. The fact that a person has the potential of doing great things does not yet mean, he will be any good for the company that should hire him. And that is basically the whole “weird thing” that I have been talking about at the beginning. Shy people are being discriminated when it comes to jobs. They have a hard time finding a job, because people do not want to hire them. But I think they are not hiring them for the wrong reasons. Now I am not trying to enforce a brand new reason for not hiring shy people, I am just saying, that it is funny how people are not hiring shy people because they are shy. Had this not been a problem, they would have eventually come to the second obstacle, the fact that the shy people might not really be useful in some cases.