Introversion is not a bad thing

I've read a number of accounts of the Virginia Tech shootings. Two of those accounts were in the Courier-Mail (the newspaper for QLD) and in a free daily newspaper that was handed out in Brisbane. The thing that stood out the most for me was that BOTH newspapers pointed out the fact that Cho was a loner. They stated this fact BEFORE they talked about his morbid fantasies, stalking etc. And that made me realise that whenever someone who preferred to spend time alone kills someone and it makes it into the papers, the papers will ALWAYS pick up on the fact that they preferred their own company and make a big deal out of it, as though introversion somehow = homicidal insanity.

If people were capable of forming their own opinions, this trend in reporting would not concern me. However, many people do trust the media as a reliable source of information. If they are unsure of their position on an issue, they can, and do, make up their minds based on things like newspaper articles. (This ability to let other people dictate your opinions to you frightens me, but that is a matter for another post.)

If there is a constantly expressed prejudice against a group, even if it is not explicitly stated (I have not yet seen a newspaper that comes out and says: "Those introverts, there's something fishy about them. Well, it's not natural, innit? People are meant to be around people."), that prejudice will seep into the popular consciousness. And we end up with sayings like "it's always the quiet ones who turn out to be the axe murderers". We end up with children being bullied because they prefer to go to the library rather than go out on the playground and play sport. People like me, people who consider going to the library, museum and art gallery ALONE a great day out, people who value learning more than they value meaningless interactions with anyone who happens to want to talk, people who have an identity that is not defined by other people- we are viewed as cold, elitist intellectual snobs who are out of touch with the real world. (Ok, ok, ok, I am elitist, at least when it comes to music.) It is as though there is something wrong with not always liking to be around people- as though introverts are somehow distorted or incomplete.

This idea is ridiculous. Roughly 25% of the world's population is introverted. Is the media somehow trying to suggest that a quarter of all people are twisted lunatics, just waiting for the right moment to go out and commit mass murder? I hope not. If that is not their intention, they need to stop this subtle vilification of introverted people.