So what do introverts fear most? People? Well, we don’t fear people, we just don’t like to handle them in large doses. Conversation? Excuse me, many introverts are wonderful conversationalists, thank you very much. Large social gatherings? Okay, so we do fear those but it’s still not our number one fear. Yes, it’s true that introverts prefer not to be around a lot of people for a long time making meaningless conversation about the weather, but there’s something that makes every introvert want to puke, cry, die, or do all three in quick succession.

We hate making phone calls.

We detest it.

We get nervous just thinking about it.

Typically, we can talk to our parents on the phone or maybe our grandma if she spoiled us when we were little. We can have conversations on the phone with people we’ve known for 5+ years. These things will exhaust us and make us want to hide in our room with a book and some hot tea for the next three hours. But we’re perfectly capable of doing them. However, if you ask us to make a phone call to a stranger, that’s it. All bets are off. Personally, I’d rather go dig my own grave.

Let me explain to you what it looks like for an introvert to make an important call… we look up the number online. We stare at it. We put the number in our phone. We stare at it some more. We plan out every last word of our potential conversation. Stare a little bit more just to make sure the number didn’t change while we were planning. We put our thumb over the send button. We stop. Stare again. After once again contemplating every possible thing that could go wrong, we finally hit send. And pray for the voicemail or busy signal.

There are just so many terrifying things about phone calls. You can’t see the other person’s face so you lose the ability to judge their body language and facial expressions. And you yourself lose the ability to communicate nonverbally, especially when you’re thinking. Every introvert has a “thinking face” that they make while they process a question and think of an appropriate answer. If you do that on the phone, you get hung up on. And finally, you have to “catch up” and get through all the niceties which usually implies small talk. Introverts hate small talk.

So if you ever give me, or likely any introvert, your number just know that we will probably never call you. We’ll text you… occasionally. We’ll snap you... if you snap first. We’ll even tag you in an Instagram photo… if you ask us to nicely. We’ll do anything and everything except call you.