There’s no question that introverts avoid people. However, every so often an introvert will go to incredible lengths to avoid talking to anyone. Whether you’re introverted or extroverted or even that all too elusive ambivert, there’s no question that many of us will sometimes go out of our way to avoid people.
However, when it comes to some of the biggest humanity avoiding practices, leave it to the biggest introverts in the world to devise the most elaborate plan possible just to avoid people in general.
The following 24 people submitted their own stories to a recent redditTrue introverts know that there’s no limit to how far one will go avoiding people and any contact with them. This anti-social behavior may seem crazy to the … thread of how they as introverts avoid people, but sometimes this avoidance makes them too introverted for their own good.
1) Groceries: I was having a bad day with being too introverted. I needed groceries so I used one of those home-delivery grocery services and I texted the driver to tell them I wasn’t home at the moment and it was okay to leave everything on the front porch. I heard the driver pull up, and I stood in the hallway in a way where I couldn’t be seen from the windows and listened carefully. I heard her knock and knock again then drop off my groceries and drive off. She sent a text back saying that I should hurry up and get home because some of the items were perishable. I just opened the door and got my groceries. Probably one of the lowest moments of my life. (Reddit user: TellAPhony)
2) Dorm Room Problems: I decided to use duct tape to seal off the top and bottom of my dorm room door. I also taped over the peephole so no one could tell if my lights were on from inside the dorm. I just had no interest in talking to anyone, and who can blame me? College students are the most annoying kind of students. (Reddit user: Birdman_the_third)
3) The Friendly Roommate: I live with a another woman who is extremely talkative. Not just normal talkative. Like talk your ear off talkative. She’ll go on for hours and hours if I let her. Sometimes when I’m not in the mood for it, I’ll hop in the car and drive around town until she goes to bed. (Reddit user: BoboHodo)
4) The Homer Hedge Move: My friend’s husband pulled a “Homer Simpson disappearing backwards into the hedge.GIF” move when he was outside trimming his hedges. A few people came to visit and he awkwardly hid inside the bushes. It was doubly awkward because they saw him do it and he just stayed inside the hedge. (Reddit user: tamati_nz)
5) Spotted Outside The Store: I was driving up to the store and caught a glimpse of someone I knew. They walked inside and I decided to not even stop and kept driving to a different store. I didn’t want to do small talk with them. I knew there would be a lot of small talk too because something big happened in their life and I know they’d want to talk about it. (Reddit user: Ohaiyogozaimasu)
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6) The Grocery Store Standoff: If I’m at a grocery store and I see someone browsing in an area that I need something from, I’ll pretend to look at other things until they go away rather than approach them. I swear though that one time I was waiting for someone to leave the soup section, while they were waiting for me to leave the salsa section right next to it. (Reddit user: livelaughloaft)
7) A Closet Case: A few summers ago my parents had our air vents in our house replaced, but I didn’t want to go anywhere so I decided to use my parent’s walk-in-closet as a hide out spot. I got my 3DS, a pillow and a snack and camped out there till the time was done. Unfortunately I didn’t think it through that they’d be inspecting every room in the house. They tried opening the closet door, and I panicked and tried to force the door closed as they were pushing. After an awkward moment they politely knocked and asked if there were any vents in that room, to which I squeaked out a “no.” (Reddit user: jinjinfreckles)
8) The Wifi-Hijack: My roommates decided to invite up to 20 people over for a random study party in our ridiculously tiny apartment. Because of this unexpected intrusion, I got into the router settings, and slowed the internet speed to dial-up era speeds. When my roommates were trying to figure out what was wrong, I told them we had too many people splitting the bandwidth. In their annoyance they all left for the library and I had the best 8 hours of silence in my life. (Reddit user: logicbeans)
9) The Car Break: At my old work I used to sit in my car for half an hour in ninety-something degree weather. I was just simply too nervous to spend my lunch breaks in the work break room or sit in a fast-food joint by myself. My car didn’t have air conditioning either. (Reddit user: AishalrSnow)
10) The Awkward One-Night Stand: I picked up a girl at a bar once. I was 19 (I didn’t get carded) and she was 26 years old. Around 3AM I decided I wanted her gone. So I go around the house and reset every single one of my clocks to 6:30 AM. I even went out to the truck and reset that clock. I woke her and told her I had shit to do and it was the morning. She was confused and likely only slept for 30 minutes. On the way to drop her off we passed a bank that had a click which said 3 AM. She was not happy, but I didn’t have to see her again. (Reddit user: LexusBrian400)
11) Mad-Pooper: Back in my college days I lived in a single in an all girls floor. The second and third floor were all boys. One morning our maintenance man had to fix the girls washrooms and I was too shy to go up to the boys bathrooms. I emptied out my garbage can, lined it with two plastic bags and took a dump into the can in the corner of my room. (Reddit user: HandmadeArrow)
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12) Headphones: My go-to avoidance tactic in any public situation is to wear headphones. You can wear them on the bus, while you’re shopping, while you’re walking on the street, nobody stops to talk to you. It’s fantastic. Sometimes I even do it while I do chores around the house so my roommates will leave me alone too. (Reddit user: deleted)
13) Wrong Store: I’m a priest, and although I should be social with all my parishioners there’s always a few that just really drive me crazy. While at the shopping mall one day, I was walking through the main hallway and saw several people from my church walking and talking. They didn’t see me, so I managed to dart into a store right away to avoid talking to them. They left, and I turned around to see an lady ask me if I was interested in buying anything. I look around and see that I entered a sex-shop. My jaw dropped and I had my own confession to the clerk that day. She was understanding but also tried selling me some products. I ran away. (Reddit user: deleted)
14) Subway Commute: I went down the elevator the same time as my colleague. We use the same subway line to get home and I was certain that If I continued walking with them we’d have to sit on the same train together and talk for an additional 45 minutes. I wasn’t having it, so I took a different subway line that added another 20 minutes to my commute, but it was worth it. (Reddit user: emcompassedworlds)
15) The 2 Mile Walk Of Shame: A few months ago I had to walk to the local visitors centre to see if I could find my first job. It’s a good 2 mile walk there so I decided to set off anyway. When I got there I saw someone I knew from my class in high school and didn’t want to talk to them, so I made the entire 2 mile walk home. (Reddit user: Brynolad)
16) Friend Fiasco: I was supposed to go to a female friend’s house for the first time, but since my parents are EXTREMELY conservative I told them I was going out to the movies with friends. The tickets were already booked so they couldn’t say no. Next day I chicken out going out with said friend, but I have to still go out because of the movie lie. So I went out stuck with nowhere to go with minimal cash for 4 hours. That day sucked. (Reddit user: deleted)
17) Holiday To Bali: I recently went on a vacation to Bali, and quite a few people I knew were going over at the same time. We exchanged the usual promises of “we’ll catch up when we get there!” but I knew that would involve drinking too much and fake stupid chatting. So I told them I went to another region and just had to be careful when I ventured out that I didn’t go to the same places they did! (Reddit user: OkeyDoke47)
18) Bus Dilemma: I work in a busy office but thankfully I only have to go in a couple times a week. When I’m there, however, everybody chats my ear off and I just hate contributing to conversation. We all have to take the same bus together after work, so most days I just end up working late because it’s preferable to stay at work later than have to commute home and keep up the small talk. (Reddit user: deleted)
19) Mountain Trips: I enjoyed disappearing into the Canadian Rockies for upwards of 2 weeks at a time during my days at school. By disappear I mean completely go off the grid. I’m good at camping and survival, so I was park my car, shut off my phone and just start walking. I didn’t tell anyone beforehand either. My mother hasn’t forgiven me. (Reddit user: Skiparay)
20) A Night Person: I usually do everything at night to avoid talking to people. I’ll walk my dog at night, duck behind trees or cars to avoid people even further. I’ll go grocery shopping at 2 AM and if someone catches sight of me, I’ll just do anything to hide. I hate talking to people so much. (Reddit user: deleted)
21) Deaf Desire: I want to learn sign language so I don’t have to talk to people. I’ve considered getting dark sunglasses and a blind person cane so when I’m in large groups of people nobody bothers staring at me. There’s just too many annoying people out there. (Reddit user: chadjb13)
22) Car Wreck Lies: When I had a bad job that made me have to talk to people every day, I told people I was in a car wreck and had to go to the hospital. I told them my car wasn’t drive able and that I needed to switch shifts with someone at work. Getting to stay home those few days were great, but in hindsight it was a jerk thing to do. Sometimes though you just have those “I can’t handle people” moments. (Reddit user: shetrips-shesmokes)
23) No Thanks: I had a new job that I was starting off on, and the team of new people there were like 12 of us starting the same day. The trainer said that we all needed to get up and play a game where we tell two truths and a lie. I excused myself to go to the washroom, went home and never went back. (Reddit user: Rarefied2)
24) High School Lunches: When I was in high school I spend every lunch hour in the library by myself or hiding in a bathroom stall. I didn’t want to eat lunch with anyone from my school and I disliked most of my classmates. Fast forward to now, I spend my lunch breaks during work in my car or in the bathroom. Some things never change. (Reddit user: deleted)
