The media is certainly one cause. Another potential factor could be the widespread use of social networking. We have our smart phones with the IMing and e-mailing, and crap like Facebook and Myspace (don't take that "crap" thing seriously, I like to integrate a smidgen of humor in each of my posts). So perhaps this fad is akin to the whole autism thing, where there are not more cases of it other than for the fact that we can diagnose it more accurately than before. We have nearly the entire world in a state of instant communication with one another, so these things are more readily observable. Just a thought.
PS
This post is definitely worth a second and third reading:
I think the media generally promote and celebrate extroversion more than introversion. Sexualization, glamor, exhibitionism and the culture of celebrity and idols are examples of extroversion promoted by the media.
I could be persuaded to think that society is becoming more reflective due to a gradual shifting of cultural values but I have not seen any work confirming this yet.
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(This may not pertain to the OP but I felt that this is related so I'm going to post it here. Please send any death threats to my PM box and keep them off of the public forums so that I can have an imputrescible reputation to display.)
I was doing some thinking regarding the difference between the introvert and extrovert and it seems that, to put it as clumsily as possible, that the extrovert acts based on his senses and the introvert acts based on his senses filtered first by his mind. What I mean is that the introvert is much more reflective of what he or she is doing, whereas the extrovert just "goes for it." Does that make any sense or should I be referred to the third rule of Voodoo Scientist's forum signature?
