You're only being asked to stay home and watch Netflix

[boredbutterfly]

I'm so sick and tired of hearing this from naturally more introverted people. As if it's the easiest thing in the world to do this day in day out on end.

Some of us are extroverts. We need social interaction. It's what makes us happy and energises us. On the flip side introverts tend to need alone time to 'recharge' and that absolutely fine to.

But I'm so sick of hearing from introverts that staying home alone all day is so easy. Yes it may be easy for you but we're not all the same.

Imagine if that was some pandemic, or even just a sociological phenomenon, which meant that it was never safe to be alone. Some form of the 'buddy system' had to be introduced. Or some kind of sociological shift where we all had to go out and partake in an activity, even a basic social one like interacting with a cashier or meeting someone for a coffee, every day for days on end for a year. How long do you think it would be before the introverts were breaking and talking about how they 'just need one day for themselves' and they were willing to take the small risk just to get some time alone to recharge because they were going crazy.

I'm just so sick of all the sanctimonious introverts acting like because this is their preferred way of living the rest of us should find it easy to adapt to. And that it's not just asking us to stay home and watch Netflix, but to give up everything that for some is us have life meaning, was our way of recharging or unwinding or energising ourselves.

I probably haven't articulated myself very well. I just need a vent after hearing yet again some variation of 'it's just staying in and watching tv, the rest of us are getting on with it fine, why can't you' and I want to scream 'BECAUSE THAT'S ALL YOU BLOODY DID BEFORE LOCKDOWN TOO, NOTHING HAS CHANGED FOR YOU!'

@TheBullfinch

That's not what introverts like either.

We enjoy going out and meeting people just as much as extroverts, we just need a day to ourselves now and again to re-charge.

Introverts aren't hermits.

I'm aware it's an oversimplification and I'm only talking from my perceptions of the introverts I know who are the ones who can't possibly understand why I can't just enjoy my time alone watching Netflix.

But imagine if you didn't get that day to recharge - for months on end.

But introverts already have to go out and interact by going to work

@OhYouBadBadKitten

Us introverts do need interaction with people too - introvert does not equal hermit. The problem with being an introvert is that we may not have a bank of people to call on for a laugh over zoom or whatever. Also, I now never ever get the house to myself. And I need that total alone space sometimes.

This.

I've been desperately lonely through this lockdown. 2 very autistic teens and dh wfh so both there and not there and it's a toss up whether we spend lunch time sat in silence because he's mulling something over and anything I say is met with tumbleweed or we actually have a bit of a conversation.

Introverts are struggling because we're stuck at home all day with our families and there's no bloody escape.

Introverts who live alone are struggling because we do actually need human contact, just in a different way to extroverts.

No-one is enjoying this now. It's been a year.

Also op it's quite insulting to suggest that introverts are in Bly having to make minor adjustments to their lives.

As an introvert I had lots of hobbies and activities that I enjoyed which I'm now unable to do.

It isn't a choice between hermit and social butterfly you know.

I'm an ambivert but what I really want is a cup of coffee in a cafe, sitting down. I want to get my hair cut, I want to go shopping for make up. I would like to go out for dinner with one person. I can live without being crammed in pubs though.

I agree with you. I'm quite introverted ( but I do love an argument and can happily defend myself) and the whole lockdown thing has been absolutely fine for me.
Must be hell for more sociable folk.

I'm an extrovert and I don't necessarily think the "stay home and watch Netflix" brigade is an introvert thing. I think it's a privilege thing.

And we're not all getting a break. I haven't had the house to myself for over a year, now as eldest teen was school refusing at the start of last year. I'm exiled to the kitchen, most of the time.

@Acesulfame

To be fair, for every hour of actual programming I watch on Netflix I spend at least an hour searching for something to watch on Netflix, followed by 30 minutes of passive aggressive non-committal discussion with my partner where we both pretend not to care what we watch. So it does fill a lot of time.

oh torture. So glad I'm single!

Ok, this thread has come about simply because of the 'introverts' I am dealing with. The ones I know have had to make little changes to their lives and can't seem to fathom why someone else might be struggling with 'just staying in and watching Netflix' and 'enjoying your own company'. Sure they miss doing certain things but for them it's just something they did, that they'd like to get back to when they can, but the loss of it isn't massively negatively affecting them. And they can't comprehend why the loss of these things for me is a massive blow and I can't just adapt to 'sitting at home at watching Netflix' like they can.

You lost the moral high ground with your final sentence.

Well we are not being asked to "only stay at home and watch Netflix" so they're wrong.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

You lost the moral high ground with your final sentence.

How have I lost the moral high ground. This has been said to me by someone I know and I want to scream that back at them because for that individual it is completely true. I haven't done it by the way because I am aware of social graces. But for this particular individual their ignorance to the fact that other people love differently and enjoy different things to them, and that they'd be going mad if this were the other way round, is really quite grating.

Don't extrapolate what all introverts think just on the basis of a few of your friends. I spent 11 weeks in the first lockdown not speaking to a single person face to face and it was incredibly tough. At other times in the last year there have been several other weeks long periods of seeing no-one. I'm introverted but like seeing people, love my friends and family.

This lockdown is easier/more difficult for people for all kinds of reasons. Don't make out it's been a breeze for all introverts.

What I don't understand is all the people who have time to watch Netflix etc.

My work is largely from home but is insanely busy now (I work in a university). There is loads of extra work due to covid and it's often less effective to wfh so I find I am back to back with Zoom meetings and then working into the evening, often till gone midnight. Weekends are housework and childcare.

It's not exciting but there is definitely no opportunity to sit around! Surely most people aren't furloughed anymore? Are others not experiencing the same?

Nothing to do with being an introvert v extrovert.
I need time on my own but I also desperately crave company I am comfortable with. Lockdown is hard on everyone.

@DuggeeHugPlease

I don't know, I'm an introvert and I hate lockdown and have found it a real struggle.

Being an introvert doesn't mean you never want any social contact, just that you need a balance between time with others and down time to recharge.
I miss seeing my family and friends hugely.

Agreed. I need time alone to recharge, it doesn't mean I want to be alone all the time and that I hate people and have no friends. I hate lockdown and I miss my friends so much.

OP I think your annoyance should be aimed at hermits, not introverts.

It wasn't "just" being asked to stay home and watch netflix though, was it?

In my case, I was asked to stop running my business, lose my income (no money from Sunak until today - and it's still a pittance - £500 per quarter, not backdated, due to being newly self employed) and spend my life savings - which were meant to be a house deposit - just trying to survive.

People on furlough have no fucking clue how hard it has been for those who were banned from working and then excluded from financial support.

I'm afraid being introverted or extroverted has absolutely nothing to do with Covid measures.

Our collective job is to do the very best we can to help stop the spread and I frankly couldn't care less whether people like it or lump it, they just need to DO IT!!

Erm... I am an introvert. Doesn’t mean I want to sit home all day watching Netflix!!!

I massively miss human interaction too! Just because I am an introvert doesn’t mean I expect everyone to want to stay gone by themselves.

True I get ‘peopled out’ sometimes but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss socialising.

Think you’re being a bit judgy of introverts tbh.

You realize that what you describe was life before the pandemic for introverts. Forced to go to offices or shops or classrooms every day. Forced to work in groups. All because it’s what is normal or the only way people can be productive or any other number of ridiculous excuses.

I don't think it's an introvert/extrovert thing. Nor do I think people who are saying that have necessarily adapted easily to it or think that is all there is to life, or never had anything else.

Mostly people who say that are comparing it to something like being sent to fight in war. And while staying home is definitely not easy, I would still choose it over been sent to the front lines. I think that's all that is being meant by it - things could still be much worse.

I don't know that it specially helps to think like that; I'm sure for some people, imagining what could be worse and counting their blessing is a helpful strategy, but for others, it just makes them feel guilty for struggling or for moaning about it. It's the sort of thing that I'm happy for someone to think for themselves if it helps them feel better and reminds them about how good they have it, but not the sort of thing that I think helps to try to make other people think. You have to choose that mindset for it to work.

But imagine if you didn't get that day to recharge - for months on end.
We need a day to ourselves now and then to recharge, we don't need all day every day for months alone.

Yep. After reading through again. VERY judgy.
You clearly have no idea what an introvert even is.
Making out hives swathes of the population are loving lockdown because we hate people isn’t on at all.