You can be proud of the term as per your understanding of it, but if you use it as a description of yourself then you're relying on people sharing that understanding. From my experience that's often not the case.
If it's who you are, there's no way to change it. Why go through life being ashamed or treating it with a cold distance?
pg's "Keep your identity small" comes to mind. But when it's a description of your mental status, it seems less like a label you choose and more like a label that chooses you.
In particular, it's different from wanting a smaller belly or bigger muscles or more money. All of those things are mutable. But being an introvert seems like a fundamental fact of your existence that's unlikely to change. In that context, isn't it better to wear it on your sleeve?
It's hard, certainly. But that's where a sense of community can help.
I am tall. If I visited a hypothetical land where they spoke English with the exception that the word "tall" now means "a rapist" I would avoid using the word. Not because of any height related shame but because I don't want anyone thinking I'm a rapist.
I respect that, but... I don't know. It's been a mistake in the past to let other peoples' perceptions define who I am. I was just hoping to convince you it's not worth it.
As a closing point, it wasn't until minorities started being proud of their labels that they made significant progress toward equality and justice. There's no reason to tolerate society's perceptions when they're unfair.
To phrase what he's saying in another way, you would not refer to yourself as something when it does not accurately represent what you are. And the meanings of various qualifiers changes over time. This has nothing to do with perception beyond the point of a shared understanding of the meaning of words.
"Label pride" played little role in the success of the vast majority of success of minority groups over time in the US. At one time Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Irish, Catholics, Italians, Jews, and countless other groups faced hardships and issues in our, sometimes not so melty, melting pot. They invariably overcame by actions, not words. Their degree of success can be shown by considering the fact that when you refer to "minorities" you're mostly not referring to these groups even though they are even smaller groups than those you do implicitly refer to with the word. Again with the meanings of the words!
The defining characteristic of an introvert is that you feel drained being in a social situation. Extroverts feed off the energy of a crowd.
Crowds and social situations can be very different. With a half-dozen friends at a bar? Part of the audience at a concert, or at a football game? Part of a team in some competition? Holiday dinner with distant relatives? Stuck in a pedestrian traffic jam? At a back yard party at a friend's house? Visiting a new meetup group for the first time?
> Crowds and social situations can be very different.
Indeed.
> With a half-dozen friends at a bar?
I have enjoyed many such situations like this many a time. Usually playing pool, and having beer. The beer helps immensely. I still felt I needed some peace and solitude during the event and regularly went away for 5 or 10 minutes to 'recharge'.
> Part of the audience at a concert, or at a football game?
I deliberately choose not to go to concerts very often - I despise going to areas with 100's or even 1000's of other human beings milling around - although if it's a particularly compelling concert I will make an effort, and mostly enjoy said concert, but look forward to getting away from all the hubub. I am not into football.
> Holiday dinner with distant relatives?
I enjoy that, but still very quickly feel drained at such and regularly go away to peace and quiet for 5 minutes and return partially renewed enough to continue until the next recharge.
> Stuck in a pedestrian traffic jam?
This is a very stressful and frustrating situation.
> At a back yard party at a friend's house?
I enjoy such, but will still go away for 5 minutes to recharge enough until the next time I need to recharge.
> Visiting a new meetup group for the first time?
This has always filled me with the utmost dread. Even now in my late 40's
> Visiting a new meetup group for the first time?
I think having some dread is more a common/normal thing, I'm very much an extrovert and this is a problem for me too.
As stated many times in the comment: introverts can be very good at social interaction and reading emotional clues. Except social interaction is not something we prefer.
