What Gifts do Introverts Contribute to Society?

Photo courtesy of freewine

“Just listen to your heart. That’s what I do.” ~ Napoleon Dynamite

“When in my life minor problems arose, I always went within for the answer. I never reached out to others for what I should or should not do.” ~ Sunyata

It’s easy for us to feel misjudged and misunderstood – probably because we are misjudged and misunderstood. But there are real gifts that introverts offer to society, and that extroverts would sorely miss if we suddenly disappeared along with those gifts (maybe by moving to Mars and calling it our own planet. No one would ever just drop by another’s home pod unannounced).

The gifts that we offer might be looked at as lesser gifts by some extroverted personalities. That’s OK – this may or may not change over time. It doesn’t change the fact that the world couldn’t function properly without us (well, it’s not functioning all that well anyway, but I’m pretty sure it would be worse without introverts).

So what do introverts contribute?

One of the biggest gifts we give to society is our independence. This world generally revolves around being in groups and the drive to grab attention and be heard and noticed. It also covets cohesiveness and sameness. Introverts give the gift of independent action and independent thinking. By being independent souls, we sometimes end up grabbing the attention of the rest of the world just by being different. Many of the people who have had the most influence throughout history have been independent thinkers who haven’t felt the need to squash their own self-rule for the sake of group comfort. Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Charles Darwin were all independent thinking introverts who didn’t bow to demands to fit in or go along with the crowd. In the end, each had crowds following them! If the only mentality the human race had was the “group think” mentality – what then?

Introverts are also independent in the fact that we don’t need others to feel good about ourselves or our lives (one of my readers, Romaine, pointed this out). Introverts are very capable of going inside, figuring out what’s wrong and right with themselves and working on those problems independently to come to a result that the individual is satisfied with. We seek little approval outside our own selves and maybe one or two very close loved ones. It usually never even occurs to the introvert to worry much about “what others will think”. “Others” are often not on our radar in that sense. This is a gift because it shows a truer way of honoring the authentic person that lies within.

Introverts are, as a general rule, calmer, slower and more analytical than extroverts. Because of the way our brains work, which is different than the way an extrovert’s brain works, we tend to think everything through thoroughly before panicking, saying something regrettable, or doing something in an improvised fashion. This often frustrates extroverts who might prefer for words and actions to happen at a stepped-up pace. But the gift of our analyzing, plotting and planning is that the final product is usually very wise and very usable. We spend a great deal of time assembling complex puzzles in our heads to produce intricate and meaningful words, plans and results.

And we are soul searchers. We dive deep inside to find truths that can’t be found anywhere but in the depths of our own psyches. This is a true gift to the world. The answers to all questions lie within and are then brought out to be shared and possibly worked out within the broader confines of a group. We bring the gift of deep introspection and fearless inner searching to the world. Without this gift the world would be lacking in all of its facets.

These introvert gifts are intangible, but can produce very tangible results – again, results that the world would miss had we all been born as extroverts. As introverts make efforts to learn to thrive in this extroverted world, wise extroverts are also learning to value and even cultivate in themselves some introverted ways.

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