Posts tagged introversion
Why is socializing so draining right now?

The pandemic has changed the way we experience social situations. A particularly interesting and inconvenient social impact of the pandemic is that a lot of extroverts are reporting feeling more drained by social interaction than ever before. What gives? Is the pandemic turning extroverts into introverts?

Not exactly. We can attribute a lot of this phenomenon to an unexpected culprit: masks.

While masking up was a lifesaving thing that was absolutely worth whatever social cost they’ve imparted to us, they are likely to be a huge contributing factor to why in-person socializing can feel so draining these days, even for folks who would normally otherwise feel energized by socializing. So while we should absolutely keep masking up (masks are saving lives, after all), there may be some reason to think about the social cost of wearing masks and how to address them without giving up our masks. Here are a few reasons why.

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How to escape small talk in two simple steps

We’ve all been there. You’re at a party, and somebody asks you a small talk question that you’re afraid will beget more small talk and before you know it, you’re thirty minutes deep into a discussion about traffic patterns in your local area. Whether the question that somebody is asking you is, “Where are you from?” Or, “Wasn’t the traffic getting here awful?” You can prevent your conversation from slipping into a night of small talk by responding the following way:

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