Are Introverts Antisocial?

There has always been a debate whether Introverts and Antisocial people can be the same set of people. Understanding Behavioural Communication, though Introverism can be a prevailing characteristic of Antisocial personalities, an introvert is not an Antisocial being in the simplest words. The puzzlet arises as people having similar traits often react differently in isolation. But if we look deep into their behavioural patterns, we see the difference in their perceptions. Antisocials overall do not like people in all senses and show hatred towards being associated with others simultaneously. They might tend to avoid social interactions, stay put in with themselves due to social anxiety and completely unwilling to communicate with the society; while also can be outgoing and good at conversing with people but being deceitful, aggressive and showing very less concern towards others. Often seen as rebels also sometimes with criminal behaviour, Antisocial personality has been referred as a personality disorder in communicative behaviour. On the other hand, introverts simply enjoy their 'me' time and prefer it as so in tranquility unless there is a need to move out. They prefer small groups of people with quality communication rather than quantity. That being said, introverts are comparatively fine interacting with people outside for a specific period of time depending on their deep conversational needs along with socializing energy level, as they drain energy from socializing and often require solitude to recharge themselves up inorder to function their thoughts properly. Though both Antisocials and Introverts are reserved and cope up with their needs to be with oneself in similar ways of withdrawing themselves from society, their outlook towards people and the need for communication contrasts. Recognising myself as an introvert for years now, it has been a tricky journey in a society where many people around never stop talking 'the small talk'. I realize my personality craving for deep meaningful conversations inorder to communicate efficiently on personal level. But with the lack of urge to understand and accept the existence of different communication-based personality traits among different individuals in the society, the struggle of being misinterpreted continues. Very often the meaning of both Introverism and Antisocial are used equivalently by most people. Though they have an identical aspect somewhere, it is important to understand that they have very different significance. Sanyukta Senapati 1st Semester Department of Communication and Journalism