Poll of the Day > Poll of the Day proves that the damn phones are the reason we're all nerds.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know we don't talk about the poll here very often, but this is some telling stuff. Today's poll is "Are you introverted or extroverted?" A question asked 4 times in the past.

December 5th, 2007
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2956-are-you-introverted-or-extroverted

September 3rd, 2009
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3595-are-you-introverted-or-extroverted

December 11th, 2013
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5353-are-you-introverted-or-extroverted

December 14th, 2017
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6927-are-you-introverted-or-extroverted

January 13th, 2022
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8701-are-you-introverted-or-extroverted

It used to be "Somewhere in between" for a while. Then, at the end of 2013 things started to turn. And it was all downhill from there. And why? What else happened around 2013 that might've caused this?

This was when phoneposting started to take off, and the general cultural shift that came with it. This "phones first" Internet. This Internet where you can always be browsing where ever you are. By the end of 2017 introverts were the most popular demographic on GameFAQs, as opposed to "ambiverts."

No I don't think this is healthy behavior either

@BouncyBouncy

No I don't think this is healthy behavior either

I don't know if it's healthy or not, all I know is that society is clearly nerdier now. More introverted. More wont to forgo socializing for posting on Reddit.

I may have talked my way out of an institution or two

Most of you aren't really introverts. You just let people somewhere along the line tell you that you weren't "cool" enough to sit at their lunch table. They suppressed your personality through social bullying and you clammed up and turned inward.

If you were allowed to be you and if they weren't mean to you, most of you would be just fine.

obligatory "wrong board"

@Straughan

Most of you aren't really introverts. You just let people somewhere along the line tell you that you weren't "cool" enough to sit at their lunch table. They suppressed your personality through social bullying and you clammed up and turned inward. If you were allowed to be you and they weren't mean to you, most of you would be just fine.

See this? This is the reason we can't have nice things. These humans are the reason you guys are forced to be here because these people won't let you be apart of their group or play any reindeer games.

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdr1evyB/

Thankfully, there are some places on Earth where it isn't like this and the adults teach the kids better. One day hopefully the whole world will adopt such ways. The levels of social bigotry and prejudice in society have more layers than any onion. I feel sorry for any aliens that come across us until then.

But where does the 2013 turn come from? Why did people stop saying "I'm an ambivert" and start saying "I'm an introvert," and why did this change happen only after 2013?

It's getting worse. And there are many factors. As we get more tech'd we get less social in person and lose certain skill sets. The fact is, not so much the voters, but the posters here. People that are here every day and post. This is their social outlet.

More and more people are using the internet as a social outlet and foregoing face-to-face communication and socialization. It's even worse now with schools and distance learning.

I think it's good in a way because the school system won't be able to program kids as effectively through reinforcement. They will be alone where they can secretly subvert the expectation and not learn the rules hardcode by skipping over peer punishment.

Hopefully that'll give the good side more secret troops to fight the hivemind when their Borg Queen appears.

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

It used to be "Somewhere in between" for a while. Then, at the end of 2013 things started to turn. And it was all downhill from there. And why? What else happened around 2013 that might've caused this?

The site started to suck so hard most of the extroverts left.

Now the only people still here are the people who have nowhere else to be.

Eh? I took one of those personality tests a few days ago and got 50% extroversion. I would not say I'm an extrovert, but I wouldn't say I'm an introvert either.
I just do me.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The site started to suck so hard most of the extroverts left.

Now the only people still here are the people who have nowhere else to be.

It's kinda funny how a bunch of people showed up when we were at peak lockdown around the same time and then also disappeared around the same time. Just goes to show that everyone who is here is probably just bored, and the only difference is whether we're forced to be home all the time vs. choose to be/don't have any better alternatives

it's just easier to pull out your phone to browse than go to a computer or open a laptop

I am an introvert. Only ever post on PC or Laptop.

Im an introvert and was a nerd before cellphones were even invented.

I'm an extrovert but I'm also autistic with social anxiety so fuck me I guess

I think it's more that other forms of social media are better in pretty much every way, so most of the people that have stuck around are those that are less comfortable injecting themselves into new communities, in which introverts (or at least people that call themselves introverts) are going to be disproportionately represented. Similarly, because the site's user base has shrunk by so much, many of the social boards have a relatively small number of regular users and little turnover, and that kind of consistency (namely, not having to interact with new people) is often comforting for people that are more introverted. Note that the number of introverts hasn't increased, just their relative proportion among poll respondents. The number of poll responses has dropped by nearly 90% since the first poll in that list, but the number of introvert votes has only dropped by 80%.

@ParanoidObsessive

The site started to suck so hard most of the extroverts left.

Now the only people still here are the people who have nowhere else to be.

2013/2014 was around the time I stopped coming here. And then I came back, because you never really forget where you came from.

What does this have to do with phones?

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

It used to be "Somewhere in between" for a while. Then, at the end of 2013 things started to turn. And it was all downhill from there. And why? What else happened around 2013 that might've caused this?

This was when phoneposting started to take off, and the general cultural shift that came with it. This "phones first" Internet. This Internet where you can always be browsing where ever you are. By the end of 2017 introverts were the most popular demographic on GameFAQs, as opposed to "ambiverts."

No, look at the overall numbers. It's less likely that people individually changed and more likely that the demographics shifted. 2007 had 98k votes, with 25k introverts. 2022 had 10k votes, with 5k introverts.

Most of the extroverts left for better-moderated communities. The people who stay are curmudgeons too used to Gamefaqs to leave.

Zeus posted...

Most of the extroverts left for better-moderated communities. The people who stay are curmudgeons too used to Gamefaqs to leave.

People left Gamefaqs for websites without mods?

There are websites without mods?

Judgmenl posted...

There are websites without mods?

Literally most websites

I've been introverted long before mobile phones became mainstream. Even more so ones with internet features.