I harbor deep suspicion about the YAY INTROVERTS trend that has gained some traction in recent years in mainstream US culture. For the purposes of this mini rant, an introvert is a person who derives physical, mental, and emotional nourishment primarily through time spent in solitude, and an extrovert is someone who derives it through socializing with others.

General US culture values many traits of social extroversion and pathologizes many traits of social introversion. Indeed, it’s really not much of a stretch to claim that we culturally maintain the belief that  introversion is a disability.

Because introversion is treated as a disability, depictions of introverts in popular media tend to have the same objectification and paternalistic curiosity as depictions of people with disabilities. And my suspicion of the YAY INTROVERTS trend derives from seeing the same condescension and objectification in the movement that the movement is ostensibly trying to overcome from the mainstream culture.