Stumbling is Perfect for Introverts

I have a confession to make. I’m an introvert.

Now some of you are probably going, “Nah, really?!? We’d never have guessed. ”

If you’ve never taken the Myers-Briggs or other online personality test, I thoroughly recommend it. The results (if it’s a good test) are a fascinating look into your own behaviors.

I know before I took my first personality test back in college, I had no idea I was an introvert. Of all the results, that was the one that surprised me. (And for those who are curious, the rest of the test said that I was intuitive, thinking/feeling (exactly 50% of both), perceiving…INTP is the usual result now).

I was surprised because I loved hanging out with friends and really enjoyed meeting new people when I was hanging out with my friends…and still do. The introvert part comes because I need lots and lots of alone time to recharge, and I’m not very good at small talk (hence the reason it’s easier to meet new people when I’m around friends…I let them get the niceties out of the way, and I join in when the talking gets more serious).

Online, this translates to having lots and lots of e-mail drafts (I think I’m approaching 100 right now) that will probably never be sent because when I finally get them to sound right, it will either be too late to send it or I’ll end up deciding I didn’t like anything in the saved message and start entirely from scratch.

Because of this, I was a little concerned when I started getting some mutual fans on SU (fan + fan = friend). I’d been part of forums before, and often felt outside of the loop because by the time I finally got a response written that I was happy with, the discussion was over.

What I happily discovered though, is that StumbleUpon is different. It’s actually perfect for introverts. Unlike a blog, there are no back and forth comments for posts. Unlike a forum, your relationships don’t depend entirely on written conversations.

In fact, I discovered that most of my friends were entirely comfortable with short messages about the subject matter, or long rambling conversations about everything under the sun, and unlike many other groups I’d been part of, the banter and small talk that help extroverts form relationships could be almost entirely overlooked as I forged friendships with other like-minded individuals.

I suspect a large part of why StumbleUpon works so well for introverts is for exactly the reason that it’s creators don’t consider it a blog (yes, your page says your blog, but if you look under help, you’ll see an explanation that it’s not really one because of the lack of comments).

Now there are a lot of ways to share on StumbleUpon, and there are forums and groups that you can join. There’s even a chat room, although I’m not sure how busy it is anymore.

But if you’re like me, if you like making friends who share your interests, but carrying on small talk with a stranger can make your palms sweat (or, as I grew up being told, “ladies never sweat, they glisten”), then you might find SU fits like a glove.