In today's Buzzword Mix, our Buzzword is Textrovert.

Before we get into the word itself, I'm pretty sure you have heard about the whole discussion of are you an I person or an E person on the internet, on social media.

相信大家只要看社媒都听过现在的说法, 说你是I人还是E人.

I was quite surprised that although many people joined that discussion, some of them have no idea what I and E represent.

So just to give you a little bit of the background, I and E represent two words in English.

If you say you are an I person that refers to introvert. And if you're an E, then you are an extrovert.

An introvert is someone who is shy and does not really talk to people, 也就是内向的人, I人;

and the opposite would be an E person, extrovert, he or she is outgoing and takes delight in the company of others. 反过来的E人就是外向的.

And now back to the world today, Textrovert.

1 What is a textrovert?

什么是线上E人？

What is a textrovert? You ask.

Obviously this word starts with text.

We say "to text someone" meaning to send them a message, for example, we wouldn't say "send me a short message". We would say "text me".

给我发信息, 发短信叫做 “text me”.

So what is a textrovert? You probably can guess already.

It's the type of person who is quick and witty over text exchanges, when you're texting them, they are never short on words. Or emojis.

所谓的Textrovert, 这种人, 在发信息的时候超级E人。

If you were to guess their personality based on text messaging alone, you'd think you were messaging with the life of the party, definitely an extrovert.

Until you actually meet them in person. Instead of being loud, they're very quiet.

Instead of inquisitive and conversational, they're shy, reserved and seem to have a hard time finding their words.

They may even look really uncomfortable and awkward. That is a textrovert.

现在并没有一个非常官方的翻译, 我觉得可以把它翻译成 “线上E人”.

Well, introvert and extrovert having part of the English language for a long time, words like textrovert and webtrovert are words that have been created, coined recently.

When you meet a textrovert in person, he's like an introvert. Very shy, has very little to say, but when this individual starts texting, he becomes a totally different person.

He comes across as an extrovert. Sounds confident, speaks his mind and has a lot of interesting things to say.

This individual, this textrovert feels a lot more comfortable texting someone than talking to people face to face. They know exactly what to text, effortlessly adapting their texting style based on who they're chatting with. There's a sense of comfort in engaging in disembodied conversations over text.

这些线上E人更愿意这种有一搭没一搭的聊天, 这种disembodied conversations, lowering all guards that might be present in face-to-face interactions.

会觉得这样没有face-to-face面对面的互动, 需要那么有戒备心, 可以放下心防lowering all guards.

And the other term webtrovert has more or less the same meaning.

Someone who feels a lot more comfortable chatting with people on the web, on the internet.

2 Pros and Cons

“文字社牛”利与弊

Now after learning about the definition of a textrovert or webtrovert, you might already be saying, hey, that's me or I've met a textrovert the other day.

Well, textrovert or webtrovert, that's probably an unfortunate by-product of technology and communicating through it.

As our communication has moved from in-person to online, we've also been given an opportunity to be someone we may not feel comfortable being in person.

We can use our phones to edit our real-time personalities.

Where we may feel uncomfortable with our face-to-face comebacks, we have an untethered courage to how we text.

有些话有些反馈, 面对面你可能不好意思说, 不是特别敢说, 但在text的时候就会无所顾忌.

Our phones have become the stage of our one-time shot at being a career comedian. Everyone loves a good LOL texting moment.

LOL in English means laughing out loud. It's a little bit like nowadays we say "笑鼠了".

And for many, texting allows them to be comical in ways they have never been able to be in person.

Actually very very common for people to say you're funnier in text, and there's nothing wrong with that, right?

Until there is.

Imagine this, you connect with a potential first date, initially, over text. His texts have you in stitches.

So he's really, really funny in text and you don't even know this guy. You talk about how funny he is with his friends, arranged with him to meet over a casual cup of coffee, and show up.

15 minutes after meeting this guy, you're wondering if you're even sitting across the table from the person who was texting you, he's nothing like what he is online.

He still looks like his picture, he is not cat fishing you, but he's awkward. He's uncomfortable. And if you don't do the talking, nobody will.

30 minutes in and you are ready thinking about your exit plan.

不知道大家有没有遇到过那种在网上聊得火热, 线下见面虽然虽然长相还是那个人, 但是性格完全不一样, 本来以为他风趣幽默, 结果木讷加沉默寡言。

See, this is the problem, with being a textrovert.

Using your virtual courage to an advantage is one thing, but creating completely different personality is something else entirely.

To some extent, we're all going to be an exaggerated version of ourselves over text or on the internet.

The reason is simple. There is a digital shield of protection in place when we text. We don't actually see the other person's reaction immediately or real time.

We have time to edit, re-edit, and edit again our messages and responses. We have a bottomless pit of emojis and stickers that we can use.

But if you get too addicted to that online personality, to that textrovert personality, you might be facing a lot more challenges when you have to actually deal with the eventual face-to-face interactions.

And now let's move on to the sample sentence.

例句示范

Sample Sentence：

-Textroverts might find it challenging to engage in in-person interactions.