It is More Preferable to be an Extrovert Than an Introvert in Modern Western Society

Introduction Thank you for your response. My opponent makes many fatal errors in his response. For example, my opponent seems to come out of nowhere talking about countries outside western society and how those countries prefer the introverted mindset over the extroverted mindset. This is entirely irrelevant to the debate. As stated in my round two opening argument, “Western society is based on Greco-Roman ideals of the person that can speak well, a rhetorical ideal. We have always been to some extent a society that favours action over contemplation. But this really reached a pitch when we moved from an agricultural society into the world of big business. And that's when it really became the case that to stand out and succeed in a company, with people that you had never met before, the quality of being very magnetic, very charismatic in a job interview suddenly became very important.” In addition to this, my opponent concedes many of my main points such as: “Extroversion is much more the standard in western countries than in Eastern ones.” “In the west, extroversion is praised” “The role of a leader tends to be dominated more by extroverts” “In an at least western society dominated by extroverts, both in number and social voice, it is no surprise that the ideal self set forth by this society is an that of an extroverted person” “introverts are the minority and try to conform to different ideals” Every one of these things directly and absolutely works against what Con is trying to debate. I will address these later. Please note that my opponent completely concedes the argument that modern western society has a bias towards extroverts, which is perhaps one of the largest arguments of this debate. Introversion in Other Countries As mentioned in my introduction, this entire argument has very little to do with the topic at hand. This isn’t about any country outside of western society. In fact, I have to argue very little here because your own argument worked against you. Here you mention that extroversion is praised in western society and extroversion is standard in western countries as opposed to eastern countries. I am sure you know of your mistake and I don’t believe I need to argue any further. To put it simply, you contradict your own stance and your argument is entirely irrelevant to this debate. Socialization Among Extroverts and Introverts My opponent differentiates socialization among extroversion and introversion. He then speaks of advantages in being an introvert and also in being an extrovert. It is undeniable that both personality traits have their own advantages and that they even complement each other. Though the true question here is whether it not the extrovert tends to have the upper hand in society in terms of socialization. Considering that extroverts make up a strong majority of society, it is fair to say that socialization tends to cater more to the extroverted personality than that of an introvert. The problem here is that extroverts tend to steam roll over introverts in social situations. Many introverts find extroverts overbearing in fact, and this can easily negatively affect how they feel in a given social situation. The reason this is all so important is because western societies are widely extroverted. Being widely extroverted inherently means socialization is a given, and with that socialization is therefore an important aspect in western societies. Even worse, introverts tend to feel as if they must conform to extroversion. As Susan Cain puts it, “Introverts living under the Extroversion Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.” [1] This directly affects the happiness of introverts. Research concludes that some of the keys to happiness lie within self acceptance and a high self-esteem. [2] Societal Roles and Positions My opponent weakly argues that since introverts can fill extroverted roles in society, the argument is implied to be irrelevant. In the same you could say extroverts can fill introverted roles in society. The point isn’t what they can do, the point is what they’re better suited to do due to their personality type. The entire point is that a majority of some of the most powerful, high-paying jobs in western society are simply better suited for the extroverted mindset. It has gone uncontested that political roles (which are huge in western society, considering that these societies tend to be very large, active and social), high power business roles (from the manager to the CEO), and social media (anywhere from actors to news forecasters) make up a huge part of western society. All of these societal roles are largely extroverted. My opponent then argues that all of this would only be significant if it hindered the wants and needs of the introvert. My opponent says it himself, “The main point is that power roles are not significantly sought after by introverts because those roles are tedious to them and not best suited to their own preferences. It does not set them at any preferential disadvantage because it's more of an extrovert want, not an introvert.” The thing is, introverts lack the opportunity to pursue the power roles of society. If the power roles of society catered to the introverted mindset you would surely be saying that introverts are at an advantage. Fact is western society forces individuals to conform to the extroverted standard or be “cast out.” Since much of western society conforms to the extroverts wants, they have more of an opportunity to pursue their goals. This is because an extroverted society produces extroverted desires. The wants and needs of the introvert are to be able to pursue their own desires, which are largely looked over and given little attention in an extroverted society. The Ideal Self My opponent goes off track many times talking about eastern society and “introverted” ideals. The introverted ideal is near nonexistent in extroverted societies. This is very bad seeing that this means introverts are largely looked over by extroverts because they do not conform to the wants of extroverts. It doesn’t matter whether the extroverted ideal it appeals to introverts or not. Since extroverts make up the majority they get to decide what the ideal is. Extroverts have a general idea of what their ideal is, and it generally has many extroverted characteristics within it. This means that introverts either must conform to the extroverted ideal, betraying their true selves, or be themselves, and be rejected by society. Extroverts don’t have to deal with this and can truly blossom in a society that wholeheartedly supports them. If society did conform to the introverted ideal then introverts would surely be much happier, but they are denied that since society conforms to the extroverted ideal which in turn makes extroverts happier. Social activity is everywhere. School is a social place, work is generally in a social atmosphere, and then after all that many people go home to their family which is a social unit itself. It’s not that everyone should live under the extroverted ideal, its simply that western society puts much emphasis upon the extroverted ideal and largely ignores the introverted ideal, putting introverts at a societal disadvantage. Conclusion My opponent drops my argument that modern society has a bias towards extroverts. In addition, he goes off track from the debate multiple times and contradicts his own stance multiple times. He has given no reason to believe that extroversion is not more ideal in western society. [1] http://www.goodreads.com... [2] http://www.psychologytoday.com...