Ever feel like other people exist for the sole purpose of draining every bit of energy from you? You’d love to be successful in business or some other endeavor but you’re frustrated because other people suck the life out of you. “Social” isn’t a word that people use to describe you. Unless it’s preceded by the prefix “anti-”, many people don’t think of an introvert as being a social person.

Is there any hope for someone to succeed in social networking and social media in general if they aren’t a “people person?” It just doesn’t seem likely, does it?.

But there is hope for the introvert, especially in Web-based social media!

Let’s start by defining introversion and its opposite, extroversion. The most basic difference between these personality types lies in the effect other people have on us. Extroverts, the more common side of this personality trait, have a much greater need for the presence of other people than introverts do. Extroverts become energized when they have other people to talk to and to interact with.

Introverts, on the other hand, need quality time… with themselves. Introverts are sometimes considered to be shy wallflower types, but the key thing is that introverts gain their strength through time spent alone to recharge their mental batteries. Jonathan Rauch wrote a celebrated article in The Atlantic, Caring For Your Introvert, where he indicated his need for two hours of “alone” time for every hour spent with other people. Introverts can rock in a crowd or in small groups, but spending too much time around other people makes their inner batteries go dead, just like leaving your laptop unplugged for too long. In fact, the presence of other people has a similar (but less fatal) effect on an introvert as Kryptonite’s effect on Superman.

So how do you make a social being out of a person who finds it hard to spend time around other people?

Simple. Remove the need to connect in person.

If you can put monitors and keyboards between two people you can allow them to communicate in a more controlled fashion. Communication in terms of pure thought exchange via the written word can remove a lot of the emotionally draining parts of interacting with other people. Introverts groove on ideas; online communication can make that work. Laura P. Thomas, part of Dell’s Global Online group and a prominent presence on Second Life as Pyrrha Dell, shared this thought: “social media is very introvert-friendly (because many introverts) are more comfortable writing their thoughts/feelings than they are speaking them.”

Let’s look at the concept of connecting without personal contact. Someone who has done very well in social media while having virtually no physical presence is Maki, author of the acclaimed blog Dosh Dosh. Maki has written extensively about social media marketing, making money online, and related topics. His blog is in the Technorati Top 20, he is a top Digg user, and he has an active presence on Twitter and other social media sites. Has anyone ever met Maki in person or seen a photo of him? Has anyone ever had a phone conversation with him? I’m sure some people have, but most people probably haven’t. By comparison, people like Seth Godin or Tamar Weinberg have much more visible presences – we know what they look like and what they sound like. In that sense, Maki’s a bit of a mystery man. Is Maki an introvert? I honestly don’t know. However, he’s an excellent example of someone with a huge social media presence, and a distinctive avatar, without a real face or a voice to match up to the words.

From a different perspective, a self-confessed introvert with a huge social media presence and a face to put to the name is Darren Rowse of Problogger.net. Between photos, video blog entries, and podcast appearances, we know what Darren looks and sounds like. We know he’s a husband and father, we know where he lives, and a number of people have met him in person (not bad for a bloke based in Australia!). We also know that Darren’s a recognized expert at making money online.

When I asked Darren for his thoughts, he had this to say via (fittingly enough) Twitter: “as an extreme introvert I enjoy social media as it gives me social content but in a measured way.” There’s the key: in a measured way. Social media allow you to pick and choose your interactions. You can make them as long or as short as you like. They can have substance or be superficial. There are so many groups, websites, and blogs about so many interests that you can always find someone to communicate with on virtually any topic.

To close, I’d like to say that introverts can do quite well in social media if they chose to. Social doesn’t always require a physical presence, just a desire to communicate. Given the right conditions, introverts can communicate very effectively. If you struggle with your ability to communicate with other people in person, social media might be a great way to stretch outside of your comfort zone and explore new worlds. It’s worked wonders for me.

Check out Broadcasting Brain, my blog about communication and social media.

(Image credit: Flickr/Jason Rogers)

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:IRONY ALERT: Social Media Introverts?Eyespot Powering Star Wars Video MashupsStar Trek Comes To Joost, Nerds Rejoice!Webby Award Creators Announce New ConferenceTakkle Launches Branded Five-Star GroupFacebook Users vs MySpace Users: We Report, You DecidePodcast: A Conversation with JamBase’s David Rosenheim

Source:Mashable!

Dear Comcast,

I hear you’ll be instituting a bandwidth cap of 250GB per residential subscriber. Well, that’s totally your call. You take that prerogative, bad boy. Nip those crazy downloaders where it hurts most. “No more of that HD nonsense for you bandits, BitTorrent or no BitTorrent, iTunes or no iTunes,” you’ll say to them come October.

And you’ll be happy to have control of your network back again, I’m sure. All that copper you laid down. Come on. Stuff’s expensive, right? How dare your monthlies use those connections as they please. No appreciation for what they’ve been given. They should be glad for their 250GB take! That’s 3,000 in 12 months! Frickin’ plenty, eh? Absolutely.

To be serious for a moment, it’s clear that there are a number of parties that will benefit from your hardhandedness. They’re names you’re quite familiar with, actually. There’s Verizon, AT&T, Cablevision, and Time Warner, just to name a few. I mean, think of all your excessively greedy customers you’ll send their way so they can frolic unbeholden by bandwidth limits like the debauched bloodhounds they are.

Of course, some of those ISPs won’t tolerate very much peer-to-peer stuff, but gosh darn it, they’ll certainly pull down those data-heavy podcasts with aplomb. You won’t have it, but they will, and that’s fine by you as long as your land’s been rid. Heck, streams from Hulu, ABC, and WB, some of them promised in 480p or better detail, is what they’ve been getting nowadays. Ptewey! Hooligans. Your tubes are going to be like raceways after they’re gone. Traffic’s going to drop to a more reasonable pace. You’ll finally be able to relax, lounging on your whitewashed porch, gun at your side, watching your loyalists wave as they walk by. All because you dropped the hammer. “Sheriff ain’t gonna take it no more, y’hear?” No he won’t.

In then end, everyone will have what they want. Mouths hungry for new media counting at gigabytes upon gigabytes a day will find ISPs that share their common interests. You, meanwhile, will be laying down the law as you know it. And those who know what’s good for ‘em will tip their hands to you and say, “He’s right. The Web is no buffet. You don’t pay your standard fee at the door and run the tap at will. This world is flat. You walk past the edge, and you walk no more. You fall!”

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Comcast Asks the FCC: How Stupid Do We Look?Comcast Hops on the YouTube KillerComcast Chooses Yahoo…Google Kicked in the Nuts?Comcast Not Net NeutralRumor: Plaxo Sells to Comcast for $175M in CashFCC May Fine Comcast Up To $1.77 TrillionComcast Practically Admits to Controlling Your Bandwidth Usage. So Not Net Netural.