We get it. Introverts are so cute because of how awkward they are during conversations, or because their face turns super red when they give a speech. Thanks for thinking introverts are cute, but can you please stop romanticizing us?
Almost every article I've read about introverts is about how awesome it is to sit at home and watch YouTube videos until 4 a.m., and how being "anti-social" is the greatest thing ever. While a lot of introverts do stay up late watching YouTube videos, it's not true. The reality of it is, as Aristotle said, "Main is a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human."
Introverts do not get the option to pick and choose when they want to be social or who to talk to. Being an introvert is NOT a choice. It stops being quirky when someone talks to you and you literally don't know how to respond to a question as simple as "did you do the homework?" and end up thinking about your response for days to come. It stops being cute when you worry about saying too much to someone -- or not saying enough. It stops being cute when you become paranoid and are convinced none of your friends care about you or what you say. It stops being fun when you see people enjoying themselves when they go out in a group of friends, or when you only get 20 likes on a picture when someone else is getting 200 likes. It stops being fun when you move away from home for college and have no idea how to make friends - or, better yet, how to make roommates. It stops being awesome when you go to bed at 3 a.m. every night because you can't sleep and have to wake up 7 the next morning.
Being an introvert ruins your life. While a lot of introverts don't have social anxiety, the illness is much more prevalent in people that are introverts than it is in people that are extroverts. That means that even if introverts WANT to change, their brain refuses to tell them they can and makes them think they're stuck the way they are. Although introverted people prefer to be alone and have their space, they are still humans - meaning they are "social creatures" and need to have some sort of human contact to be able to function as much as humanly possible.
So, from the fingers of an introvert: please stop. Stop making it seem like all you ever want to do is sit at home and never talk to people because it's a fun trend. You don't understand what introverts struggle with on a day-to-day basis. While you're in a room full of friends complaining about how "anti-social" you are, there is an introvert sitting by themselves trying to grasp the concept on how to properly talk to people without coming off "weird" or uninterested.
