Susan Cain is a renowned speaker and writer in the field of introversion. With over 4.8 million views, her TED Talks video on the power of introverts has people talking.
Should you choose to respond to this post for course credit, please complete the following:
- Watch Susan's TED Talks video. (It's about 19 minutes long).
- According to Susan Cain, how many people are considered introverted?
- How does she contrast shyness and introversion?
- When describing the introvert/extrovert spectrum, she proclaims that ambiverts have the "best of both words." What does she mean by ambivert?
- Susan provides quite a few examples of how our world is created for extroverts rather than introverts. Describe at least 1 of these examples and provide your opinion about the matter.
- At the end of the video, she provides some advice - do you agree or disagree with her? Please explain.
- What are your general thoughts about this video? What did you learn?
Near the end of the video, Susan briefly talks about the book she published about introverts. In case you are interested, this is the book that she is talking about. I personally haven't read it yet (it's on my list), but it has rave reviews on Amazon!
Very interesting video, and presentation by Susan. It is hard to believe that 1/3 to 1/2 of the world is introverted. That seems like a very high number but when you look around and think about it it doesn't seem that high.
ReplyDeleteI like how she showed shyness and introversion are not the same thing. Shyness is the fear of being social, fear of that social interaction. Maybe it is the fear of being judge because you are a little different than someone else but shyness and introversion are 2 different things. Introversion is how you respond to stimulation, introvert's don't need a large amount of external stimulation to make them happy. I myself am so much more happier when I am home with my kids. It is my comfort zone, my most stimulating zone. Extrovert's need that stimulation from others, they are happier when they are in a group of people.
Not knowing what an ambivert was till researching it prior to the video and listening to her talk about it I never knew that it is a person that is in the middle of the road. She talk's about Steve Wozniak and how he talked about being an introvert growing up and if it wasn't for that he would never have had the idea's he did to help make apple computers. But as Steve grew older he done his best work when he was all alone being that introvert he thought he was but he learned how to get that stimulation from the larger groups also.
Susan explained that classroom work is now being done in groups, classes like math, creative writing...I think that introvert's need that group activity but I also think extrovert's need to learn how to do things on there own, learn how to get that stimulation from themselves. You don't always need a lot of people patting you on the back and saying good job, learn to be yourself.
Susan's advice about stop the group work and go out into the wilderness to find yourself and for those extrovert's to look into your own suitcase is some great advice. Going back to the previous opinion, the group work is a tough one to agree or disagree with, I think introverts need to get more group activites and extrovert's need less group activity to help find themselves. And with that extrovert's need to go out into the wilderness and find there true self. Go out with just you and a special someone and find that special thing inside of you. And everyone is carrying around some kind of baggage, look inside your suitcase and see what you have in there, and then take a step back and look at the rest of the world. We are equal, we do things differently.
I learned some of the great mind's of our time was introverts. I learned introvert's are not as easy to find as you thought they were but also found out they get better grades in school. They don't need that social activity to make them happy so they have more free time to do school work. And western civilization always goes for the extrovert, they want that person willing to go out and chase that dream, but I think people have that confusing just because you are introvert doesn't mean you are not going to go out and chase that dream, we introvert's just do it with a lot less NOISE!