I feel like media, even now, tends to portray introverts as a bunch of somberly bunch of nerds or sensitive souls who just can't keep a friend due to their high intelligence or general sense of quirkiness. I'd like to think it's possible for an extrovert to be moody, or highly sensitive, or are intelligent and having quirks of some sort, right?
E/I portrayed as a hard dichotomy, delivered as click bait, to a widespread ignorance and those who engage in willful mischaracterization.
I’m very close to being an ambivert, but yes, when speaking of normative function and presentation, extroverts and introverts have far more in common (human!) than they do differences, but I suppose the difference is the whole point.
Nerdiness, giftedness, being sensitive, quirkiness, and mood lability are all equal opportunity.
Also, introverts aren’t necessarily any less social than extroverts, nor are extroverts any more so. Whether social engagement results in psychodynamic energy accumulation, or depletion, is the distinction.
Portraying either as some variety of an unsavory misfit is just lazy and banal.
That all said, those at the extreme polar ends of the E/I spectrum may, at times, be mistaken as differing species.
Of course, people can’t resist mixing in characteristics which are maladaptive, clinical, dysfunctional, and disordered, again, sometimes out of ignorance, and sometimes because of an agenda and an axe to grind.
Cheers,
Ian