Finally, a proper home for this meme I made so many years ago...
I will order food and legit still be terrified when the door knocks
Thank the stars for tracking apps. Now when I order food I start getting antsy at about 10 minutes before estimated delivery time. I'm generally peeping out the window like a weirdo* waiting for them to pull up to the door so I can intercept the dreaded knock.
*i.e. more weird than usual
I think it's largely a cultural thing and secondarily a learned habit. Before phones this wasn't generally an issue, but now people have learned to expect a call.
I'm quite introverted but I don't mind sudden visitors. I even generally welcome salespeople, Mormons and Jehova's Witnesses although I don't share their beliefs (yes, salespeople do have beliefs about how necessary it is to buy things).
When I was a teenager I would visit my friends unannounced and they did the same thing to me, and I miss that time.. back when nobody had mobile phones. So maybe because I got used to it when young I still usually like visitors. Also, as a child I lived close to a farm where they still had the old custom that you could just walk in, no doorbells. But it would be entirely different if I lived in a country where talking to strangers might be dangerous.
This thread demonstrates how MBTI can actually have a harmful effect, making sure that people always stay in their comfort zones. Introversion doesn't mean that being afraid to answer the door is healthy. The fear or discomfort is rather a result of the choices we make to start identifying with our homes to such an extent that even seeing somebody there unexpectedly seems like an invasion of privacy. And while introverted people might get into such a thought loop more easily, it is not inevitable.
"But I'm not neurotic at all! I'm just an INFJ!!"
*hides in the closet*
I agree with the first bit (cultural / learned) but not so much with the second. My grandparents never owned a telephone (Introvert level OVER 9000) and they still avoided all visitors apart from immediate family. Some people really are just that disdainful of company.
I guess we have different definitions of "quite introverted." I wouldn't waste a second of my day on a door-to-door salesperson or religious kook spouting nonsense, much less invite them into my living space. What do you stand to gain from such interactions?
That's why I wrote "generally". Of course there have always been people who take issue with unexpected visitors, in some cultures it's been more common than in others. But I still maintain that the mobile phone has shifted the general perception of acceptable behaviour toward the current situation. When there weren't means to announce a visit to someone in the same village, people didn't expect messages beforehand.
"Quite introverted" in this case means that I don't go out of my way to find social interaction. When it does happen I can be very sociable for a while and I like meeting new people. And I'm not as quickly drained of energy as some introverts are. However, in reality weeks and months go by when I don't have a proper conversation with anyone; I do go to a book club once a month and I also meet with a friend a few times a year, but that's about it. So in a situation like this any human contact feels wonderful, even if it's a person trying to sell something. Having lived in social isolation for a while now I'm not that obsessed about the sanctity of my bubble. Despite my upbringing, there also was a time when I felt uncomfortable with visitors. Outwardly my life appeared the same as now, it's just that my attitude was different. So based on this experience I believe that in many cases what people consider a personality trait or a natural preference is rather a choice they keep making every day until it seems like they couldn't live any other way. I guess I'm trying to say that it's possible to be "quite" introverted, not having a pressing need to go out just for the sake of company, and yet not be afraid of people, even unfamiliar or unexpected visitors, seeing each situation valuable in itself.
Introversion is a tendency. What I meant by my comment about MBTI is that people can take their tendencies so seriously that nothing else seems possible anymore, particularly if they've found a label for it. Not being able to open the door if you don't know who it is sounds more like an obsession people have developed around their tendency to prefer intimate interactions. And that seems unhealthy to me. (I'm not saying that my way of life is healthy either, but that's a different matter)
Also, when I was a child I remember often hiding at family gatherings, going somewhere else to read. But now I've come to realise that retreating in itself can be considered rude (and that's how extroverts sometimes see shy people). Rudeness is always dependent on the culture, but even within the culture there are different conceptions depending on the expectations people have. And expectations, at least for the most part, are not hard-coded in our genes.
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Also I wanted to add that people in this thread seem to think that showing up unannounced is obviously rude, but from another perspective rejecting someone who is reaching out to you, going through the trouble of coming to visit, even if it's a missionary, can also be considered rude.
Thanks for replying, I didn't expect anyone to actually comment because there's such a huge aversion to anything smacking of conflict or disagreement here.
This is a matter of perspective. I think it's perfectly healthy to eschew unwanted intrusions into one's life, particularly if one is only complying out of some sense of courtesy or accommodation (let's call it Fe-driven for argument's sake). In other words, if it goes against one's nature to accommodate a stranger barging into their home and taking up their time and energy, is it really "healthy" to do so?
I don't really have much to add since it seems that despite our different views the disagreement is not that big. I was also trying to make the point that things are largely a matter of perspective. Yet...perhaps I've polluted my mind too much with postmodern philosophy, but I tend to think that your personal nature is largely a construction that you uphold because the continuity seems like the only possible strategy. And if it's a construction, it can be changed, although with age it becomes much more difficult. There isn't a definite point at which eschewing intrusions becomes unhealthy just like there isn't a universal measure of rudeness, but somewhere on the continuum the health issue does pop up. What is healthy or not is another fascinating topic that goes way beyond this thread, but related to this matter the gist of it is that a person may think that some behaviour (not answering the door) is perfectly understandable while a doctor would say that they're being avoidant. If we assume that unhealthiness is something that causes suffering to oneself or to others, continued avoidant behaviour could only make matters worse until any intrusion causes immense distress. At least that's what the doctor would presumably say, although the patient would insist that there really isn't a mental problem, because the only problem is that pesky delivery guys and relatives keep ringing the doorbell. Who's right? I don't know. But having gone through an avoidant phase earlier I recognise the danger of comfort zones.
The problem here seems to be that there are two overlapping perspectives, the cultural and the medical, the first being more relative than the second, and I don't know if they can be made commensurate. Regarding our values it's easy to say that there are different views on when it is rude to intrude or to reject a harmless visitor. But add the mental health perspective and the issue becomes even more complex. I'd say that if strangers seem like such a threat that you're never willing to answer the door, then (unless you live in a country where people are regularly kidnapped) the issue transcends from simple introversion to compulsion, and it's your problem, not the problem of the one visiting or the society. And I wouldn't want to encourage anyone to think introversion means that any level of suspicion is perfectly normal. So I'm not criticising you or anyone else for not wanting to be bothered, I rather wanted to point out that it can easily become an unhealthy habit that is not a direct consequence of introversion as such.