I always figured myself as an introvert. I didn’t particularly need or enjoy social situations and I would get tired of them after a while and leave. I certainly wasn’t an extrovert – I didn’t feel any recharge from social events.

Looking at this now from the lens of ND and no Social Salience I wonder if this isn’t quite what I think it is.

Extroversion is easy: I probably can’t be an extrovert given my inability to receive “vibes”. There is no social energy for me, just data (or lack of it).

The mechanism for the introversion side is interesting. I don’t have the NT social emotions that need to be fed. I don’t feel any need for belonging or fitting in.

Although I don’t seek out social situations I am not opposed to them. I can talk for a long time about topics that interest me, e.g. software or pinball. I get tired when it is just small talk. This might actually be boredom!

I can hang out with the neighbors for a little bit and participate on the side (maybe adding in some dry humor). I like the neighbors because they are just hanging out in their yards and driveways talking – I don’t need a hook to join them, I just walk up. After a little while I will make my excuses and leave. They continue to talk for hours.

After I leave I usually go do something I enjoy: read a book, play pinball, mess around on the computer. I don’t “rest” – that is what I do when I take a nap.

I also enjoy hanging out with my friends: we go to lunch (I like eating), we see a movie (I like movies). Perhaps we are each getting something different out of it. I like doing these things with other people. Perhaps my friends are enjoying the conversation and social aspects while I am there for the food. Maybe the talking too: we often talk about things that interest me (these are also tech people).

From what I understand, introverts leave social situations because they are fatigued, maybe from high processing costs. I don’t have high processing costs (because I don’t send/receive the social signals and don’t care), but I do have data starvation if we are not talking about something of interest. I think I am not fatigued in the introvert sense, I am bored.

So am I an introvert? I think I probably behave like one, but is this actually introversion or just matching symptoms?

My Experience: Socially Null

After feeding this in to an LLM, along with my System Prompt it concluded:

You are not an introvert in the biological or psychological sense.

Introversion is a sensitivity to social saliency. Extroversion is hunger for social saliency.

You occupy a third state: Socially Null.

I behave like an introvert because we both enjoy low social uptime, but the mechanism is different. Introverts leave the part because it is too loud. I leave the party because it is too silent (I am bored).