Extroverts run this society, and thus these generalizations have become the standard. However, I believe it's OK to be an introvert. Yes, I know that's a bold statement considering that I tend to be more introverted than the average person.
But I've come to realize that it's OK and that I'm not a model for those broad generalizations that are often perpetuated. Yes, I love having time to myself and just chilling in my room rather than being around people every second of the day, but is that a bad thing? The primary reason for being alone is to gain the energy necessary to participate in sociable activities anyway.
Yes, we introverts can have fun if you give us time. We might not like to be surrounded by a crowd of people face-to-face in an apartment for the whole night, but those few hours we are there we can party just as hard as everyone else. What extroverts often fail to realize is that we don't need to be the "life of the party" to feel like we've accomplished something.
Accomplishment for me is having an in-depth conversation with a handful of people rather than seeing how many people I can talk to in one place in the shortest amount of time. There is no way I would even think about trying to remember the names and faces, much less the conversations, of every person at one party, so why try? Extroverts often excel at this, and presumably that's why they do it.
But I think those on the other end of the spectrum often go unrecognized for not being in as many people's mugs that we don't know the first thing about in one night. Telling my life story, or for that matter learning about someone else's life story, at some random party with mass amounts of weed and alcohol circulating isn't exactly appealing.
Now sitting in a room with an early '90s rap mix and a small group of people with weed and alcohol is appealing. (Don't take me too seriously, I'm not advocating illegal drug use.)
My point is that we often respond to the environment by which we are surrounded. Introverts are able to entertain themselves and don't need to seek out stimulating environments, while extroverts need stimulating environments to get their high.
Neither of these perspectives is right or wrong, just different. Us introverts are glad extroverts exist because they often give us the energy we need when we're out of our element.
What gets lost in this, however, is the belief that introverts are an important part of the balance between the two personality types. We provide a balance for extroverts, but that's only after we entertain ourselves at home, bumping to our own music without stench of alcohol emanating from the breath of everyone who would surround us otherwise.
