Dashanna White

Ms. Rand

ENGL 1103

11 November 2013

Why does being around a crowd interest certain people? In todays society the people who seem to thrive are the ones who are outgoing and willing to openly interact with many different people at any given moment of the day. These are the people who mostly receive the jobs as CEOs, sales representatives, politicians, actors and even singers. They receive the most attention, not because they are better than the people who prefer to stay in the background, but because they have dominant personalities. They are willing to put themselves out there when it comes to networking and talking to the right people. This is something that comes naturally to them. They dont mind being the center of attention or getting to know complete strangers. We know why they receive the most attention, but why does being in a crowd interest them?

Growing up I could never fully understand why people acted the way that they do, why they were attracted to certain individuals, or why they lived the life they live. Most people I knew back when I was growing up and that I know now can be put into two different groups. One group contains the ones you would usually see interacting with many different people or the ones who always seem to have something going on. They are usually well known because they

are so outgoing and they dont mind having the attention in the room directed towards them. Im sure everyone has been around people like this. They are like the teenagers you see in those Disney movies or on movies like Mean Girls. They always seem to have all eyes on them whenever they are doing something or they are usually seen as the popular kids in school. The other group is the people who are falsely presumed as being the underdogs in todays society. These are the ones who prefer to steer away from having attention directed towards them. They are completely content with being left alone and would prefer to be around a select group of people rather than being around an entire crowd. These are the loners you would usually see in the movies. A lot of times they are overlooked whenever they are in a room and are usually falsely characterized as being nerds or weird. It wasnt until I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test a few months ago that I realized our society had names for these two types of people. We are either categorized as being extroverts or introverts.

Extroverts are the people who feel as if they have to be around others in order to have fun. They are the ones who enjoy going out because they want to meet new people. Extroverts seem wired to adopt the goals of the people around, particularly when they feel close to those others (Markman). Its as if they feed off the energy of others and this is why they seem to work pretty well in groups. Introverts on the other hand are people like me. We dont care too much about being in the company of others and we are perfectly happy with being curled up in our room with a nice book or something to preoccupy our time. We prefer to blend in with the crowd and dont feed off of the energy of others like an extrovert would; being around others can drain us.

Since I am an introvert I can kind of understand why we are the way that we are, but I cant understand why extroverts do what they do. It is hard for me to wrap my mind around someone wanting to be interactive or put themselves in the spotlight. Unlike extroverts, whenever I think about having to interact with people or stand in front of a crowd I find myself getting nervous and I dread it. For once I just want to see inside the mind of an extrovert and understand how they think.

I realized that one of the only ways to see inside the mind of an extrovert is by talking to one, so I decided to conduct an interview with my best friend Valerie Carter. I knew that she would be the perfect person to talk to because she is as extroverted as a person can get. Since day one I never understood how a person as introverted as me could be best friends with a person as extroverted as she, but I guess you can say that we balance each other out. Carter is a very social person who loves to be on stage performing in front of a crowd, and I have always known her to be the type of person to just walk up to a complete stranger and spark a conversation with them just so she can have someone to talk to. After interviewing Carter, I realized that a person does not choose to be extroverted or introverted. She describes extroverts as being born this way (Carter). I understand where she is coming from because, no matter how much I would love to be an extroverted person, I cant change who I am and I cant bring myself to interact with a large group of people.

It is said that extroverts tend to focus more on the outer world of people and activity rather than ideas and impressions. This makes sense when you think about how extroverts interact. They dont just sit around and observe the world around them as an introvert does; they would much rather be more hands on and be a part of everything they see and experience.

Extroverts prefer immediate gratification and focus more on faces (Ghose). They are all about action and want to see the immediate outcomes of everything they do because their brain weighs more on external motivational rewards and cues rather than internal cues. Because of this, people would assume that extroverts crave the attention they receive, but this is not the case. If you were to ask any extroverted person about this assumption they would most likely say I dont ask for the attention, but I wouldnt like being ignored. I may bring attention, but I do not need it (Carter). Ultimately, extroverts dont only like to be around a crowd because they like the attention. They have been like this since they were children and, like Carter said, they were just born this way. To grasp the idea that extroverts were just born this way you would have to understand the link between extroversion and dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical that plays an intimate role in the brain circuits which control reward, learning and responses to novelty (Stafford). How extroverted you are relies on how active your dopamine system is. There was a study conducted that basically monitored the brain activity of both extroverts and introverts who were asked to perform gambling tasks while on the brain scanner, and once the study was conducted and the results were reviewed the researchers basically saw that the people who were more extroverted had a gene that increased the responsiveness of the dopamine system (Stafford). To summarize, there is a particular gene that extroverts carry which affects the way their brain responds to certain situations and activities. Our preferences are shaped by the way our brains respond to the world (Stafford). Since extroverts have the gene that increases the responsiveness of the dopamine system, its pretty obvious that introverts lack this gene. It makes more sense when you see how timid introverts can be at times and how different they are from an extroverted person.

All extroverts are not outgoing, but most of them are and this is why they are the ones who are quick to engage in a conversation. Extroversion refers to energy flow and the tendency of some people to draw energy from the outer world -- their focus is on people and activities around them (Safani). This brings me back to the idea of extroverts being able to draw their energy from the people around them. For example, Valerie Carter states Being around more people gives me a sense of energy. I am more interactive when I find people with common interests (Carter). She acknowledges that the people she is surrounded by can help her reach her full potential. This can also help someone understand why introverts feel drained when around extroverts. An extroverts interest in being around a crowd and their outgoing personality can be both a strength and a setback for them. The fact that being around people energizes extroverts is a key strength for them in networking activities (Safani). They enjoy talking to people so they have a natural charm to them that many introverts lack. At the same time, extroverts have a problem with being quiet long enough to let the other person talk, and this is where their outgoing personality can be a minor problem. Another strength that extroverts possess is their ability to think on their feet -- that is, they think out loud, figuring out the answer as they go (Safani). They are able to find an answer to almost any question that is thrown at them, but sometimes the thinking on their feet method can lead to them sounding as if they are rambling on and on. To conclude, extroverts were born this way. They have their own strengths that are like second nature to them and it is something that they didnt have to learn. They dont simply want to be around a crowd just for the fun of it or because they are craving the attention from others.

They are feeding off the energy of the individuals around them. By doing this, it is helping them to reach their full potential that they probably could not have reached on their own. I wouldnt say that it is a necessity, but this is why they prefer to be around more people than almost any introverted person would choose to be around. Extroverts arent as interested in being around the crowd as the crowd is interested in being around the extrovert.

Works Cited Carter, Valerie. Personal Interview. 30 Oct. 2013 Ghose, Tia. Why Extroverts Like Parties and Introverts Avoid Crowds. Live Science. Tech Media Network, 13 June 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Markman, Art. It is Motivating to belong to a Group. Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Safani, Barbara. Introvert vs. Extrovert: Whos more likely to Succeed? Aol Original. Aol Jobs, 16 Mar. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Stafford, Tom. What makes us Extroverts and Introverts? BBC Future. BBC, 17 July 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.

Reflection

The most interesting thing I learned while writing this inquiry paper was that there is something going on in your brain that determines whether you will be an extrovert or an introvert. I used to feel like there was something wrong with me since Im not a person who enjoys the company of others. I struggled with finding enough information for the paper. I ran out of ideas by the time I got to the end of my paper, but I overcame this by basically elaborating on some of the ideas and concepts. I also struggled with answering the question. I thought that everything I was writing had nothing to do with the question I was supposed to answer so I continued to rewrite almost every paragraph I typed. My inquiry question changed slightly as I began planning out my paper. I didnt plan on writing my entire paper on extroverts and introverts, but I figured out that this was the best way for me to answer my question. It is important to look at the historical view of the topic because your reader should understand the background of your question and understand why you chose this topic over all the other topics you could have inquired about. I think that my analytical skills and evaluation skills have changed because I usually would just introduce a subject and not elaborate. I felt that if I talked about some of the key points briefly then it would be enough to get me an A. I am most proud of how I was able to make an entire paper out of one question. It was like I was given a chance to put in my opinion and I could pull from any credible source that I wanted to. I would now like to know what introverts can do in order to get noticed and not be brushed off by society because we dont make as much noise as the extroverts do.