Plenty of ink has been spilled over the issue of the internet’s effects on our minds. With young people now spending nearly every waking moment somehow plugged in, are our brains rotting and our attention spans shrinking, ask hand-wringing experts? But science writer Joanne McNeil recently posed a slightly different question about our digitally obsessed lifestyle — are social networking and the internet generally taking a disproportionate toll on introverts?

A self-proclaimed introvert (an INTP for those of you into that sort of thing) and lover of introverts, McNeil asks what sort of online life is healthy for those who need to frequently withdraw and recharge. She writes:

Social media drains me like a large party might. I just deactivated Facebook. And I don��t @ much on Twitter. Too often it feels like the ��fog of [an extrovert's] 98-percent-content-free talk,�� as Rauch put it.

I��m an introvert and an online introvert…. This doesn��t mean i don��t see the value of social media. I just use it my own way. I know a lot of introverts who are online extroverts, which is perfectly reasonable. Maybe they see social media as a shortcut for getting necessary small talk �� �C out of the way. And then there are extroverts who are online introverts. They really don��t have time for Twitter or Facebook �� too busy partying with friends or talking on the phone or other social activities, to sit at a desk and type.

In the rest of the thought-provoking but somewhat rambling post, McNeil goes on to wonder about the advantages and the drawbacks of social media for introverts. Staying in touch with many online saps their limited resources, but avoid the online chatter and they risk appearing standoffish.

Introverted readers, what’s your take on the issue? Is social networking a helpful aid to interaction or an energy suck that distracts you from building important relationships offline?

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