Leon Neyfakh has a great article “The Power of Lonely” on boston.com.
The sad truth of social perception:
Spending time alone, by contrast, can look a little suspect. In a world gone wild for wikis and interdisciplinary collaboration, those who prefer solitude and private noodling are seen as eccentric at best and defective at worst, and are often presumed to be suffering from social anxiety, boredom, and alienation.
The article goes on to mention a ton of research on how time alone has a zillion benefits and is super good for you. It doesn’t mention introversion, but the connection I would make is that alone time is super easy and necessary for introverts and extroverts will need to make a more deliberate special effort to gain the benefits of alone time. That is, if they would benefit in the same way (I’m not sure they would).
A 2003 survey of 320 UMass undergraduates led Long and his coauthors to conclude that people felt good about being alone more often than they felt bad about it
High five, UMass students.
Even as an extrovert, I agree with this article. Alone time is essential. After living alone for a few years now, I find that I get stressed and exhausted after too much time around other people. However, spending an entire weekend by myself can be equally bad. I think most of us would like to strike a balance between the two states.
I try, very hard, to maintain a healthy balance of socializing and soaking in some solitude and I usually do a pretty good job at it.
I think that so many folks don’t know the difference between being lonely and being in a state of solitude.
Thanks for the great info and keep rocking out that solitude!