Social Battery in Quarantine
By: Mallory Johnson
The term social battery is a metaphor for a person's extent to mingle with groups of people in one setting. It is an introvert's way of describing their anxiety of having to interact with large crowds. I am an introvert and I got used to having a lot of time alone in my dorm before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Due to quarantine, I am not alone as much as I want to be and have become used to being. Throughout the day, my social battery goes down, and then when I am up late on my phone by myself it recharges - it is like I am a cell phone. Unlike extroverts, I need time alone to recharge. If I want to be alone, I tend to go to my bedroom. My parents have both been working at home since the middle of March, and school was moved online. My parents going golfing after work gives me time to be alone. Having the entire house to myself is a lot different than being alone in my room. I have sensory processing issues, and because of these issues, loud conversations, music, and noises in general make me want to escape and go to my room. Listening to music in headphones can help, as it helps drown out some of the noise and gives me some control because I can choose the music. Sometimes I just need a moment in a bathroom to collect myself. Listening to music in headphones helps, because it drowns out unwanted noise and gives me control of what I am hearing. This mainly helps when I am in public. In some situations at home, all I need to do is go to another room to collect myself and recharge, just a little. There’s a few nights that come to mind, for example card games with cousins, although jammed packed full of fun and good times, drain my social battery pretty fast. Quarantine has provided some impromptu teaching/learning opportunities to learn about introverts - suggesting that quarantine life is a choice introverts make and a challenging time for extroverts. No matter how your social battery works, I hope you find the balance in your summer to stay charged.