Online Modality: the Introvert’s delight!

“I can’t do this any longer; I think I am going to die, if I have to stay home one more day,” exclaimed an extrovert somewhere.

Everywhere I turn, I hear the extroverts murmuring about how much they hate online learning, teaching and working, etc.  Lecturers and students alike are constantly griping about how much they are so pained about not being able to go to the physical school to learn or teach and how because of this, they feel like the pandemic has destroyed their lives, completely.  I almost feel badly for saying this, but …… while I understand the pain…..

….I cannot identify. 

Let me hasten to say that I am in agreement that the pandemic has created quite the uproar for many of us, but being required to operate virtually has not been an inconvenience…. NOT for me.  Put me before a computer, turn the cameras off (or turn them on intermittently) and teach me everything and anything, and best believe that I WILL learn.  I do not require face to face interactions with my lecturer nor do I with my fellow classmates. I engage just fine via the internet, and all is well in my learning world. 

Where my fellow introverts at?!

 Let us be honest, the online modality allows us to be in our chillest of modes, wearing our chillest of clothes, in our chillest of space, just chilling, while being free to be the introverts that we are.  Also, I am able to multi-task and do all the other things that I would have otherwise had to wait to do had I been in a specific location away from home.  I cook, I clean, I eat, I read, I write, etc. and none is the wiser, because my ear phones are in, my mic is mute, and I am listening in (for the most part).  When there is something to say, I say it.  When I am called upon, I respond.  What’s not to love?

I know I am not the only one!

The same is applied to the other capacities in which I operate in an online modality.  As a part-time lecturer, it is a little harder, because I am forced to encounter students who are on the other side of the spectrum – those students who refuse to participate, which makes it a little bit more difficult to ascertain the learning curve.  There are those who are also exactly like me, so I have to find more creative ways to get them to turn on their cameras and keep them engaged.  The only issue with this, for an introvert like me, is that teaching online requires way more interactive effort than it normally would had I been face to face.  Still, it is my preference.

As for work meetings, PTA meetings, group meetings, church meetings and zoom parties…and the list goes on, the introvert operates well in these scenarios. In fact, we are now more likely to participate in these activities than ever before, because being online allows us to remain incognito until we are required to assert our points of view.  I use the word “assert,” because I want to make a very clear point that being an introvert does not mean that we are shy… farthest from the truth. We say what we are required to say and then we skedaddle.

There are other benefits that the introverts derive from this new dispensation, but I will not mention them here, because I would be giving too much away, and I definitely do not want to be kicked out of the introvert community.  LOL

What does it mean for us when all this ends?

Obviously, we are not happy that there is a pandemic and want it to end RIGHT NOW.  We are deeply affected by the ways in which this has affected us and others. We are constantly thinking about ways in which to keep ourselves everyone else around us safe…. In this way, we are like everybody else.

But….

We dread what will happen when we will not have a choice but to interact the way we once did before this pandemic madness began.  There will be no more social distancing.  We will no longer have the “you are too close” or “…it’s a pandemic” excuse as our crutch.   Introverts are in the minority, so we are going to have to go back to explaining to those who do not understand that we are okay when we are silent or when we are deliberately social distancing.  We also will not be able to talk out loud to ourselves, since there will no longer be masks to hide that.  Plus, we have to, once again, make up excuses about why we are not able to go to the outing that we really do not want to go to.  We are dreading those things. I caution all extroverts to remember that…

…the extent to which you itch to go out is the same desire we have to stay in.  

For now, while everyone else is complaining about the six feet protocols and being forced to forego parties and public gatherings, we are sitting back and watching y’all become flustered as we remain online working, learning and creating – in the introvert’s delight!