Every day at college I’m reminded that college is about community. The dining halls are mostly round tables with eight chairs, the classrooms are being remodeled into group tables instead of individual desks, and dorm floors have daily group meetings in cramped quarters – I could go on. I’ve heard before that college is an extrovert’s heaven. If you go to Calvin’s student life page, you will see pictures of students studying together, having discussions together, and playing sports together. Even the library, a space of learning, is an open plan layout with group tables. Being alone is unheard of in college. I have trouble finding anywhere where people aren’t congregated. 

But I often wonder to myself: we’re here to learn, aren’t we? And people have different learning styles. About 50% of people are introverts, including myself, meaning we need time to recharge alone and often learn better by ourselves rather than in a group setting. I’ve noticed a new trend in classrooms where professors will more often involve group work in their curriculum. Professors take the news of a shorter Gen Z attention span (actually, maybe they’re just not that interesting) and split up their lectures with group learning and discussion. For some purposes, I agree that groups are helpful to facilitate collaboration, brainstorming, and teamwork. However, whenever I hear that the professor wants my class to get into groups, I immediately know the next ten minutes will be a waste of time for me in terms of my own learning. 

This move toward community-based learning, and insufferable togetherness in college has sent me on a hunt to find someplace to be alone to recharge. To study, I’ve tried to find abandoned offices and sound-proof music rehearsal rooms, even though sneaking around to find someplace to study on a college campus seems counterintuitive. The library does have five individual study rooms, but they’re almost always occupied (big surprise! The introverts are in them.) One night I was particularly drained from a long conversation with my roommate, so I went down into my dorm basement, where people don’t usually go, to find an awkward couple making out behind the couch. They heard me coming down the stairs and turned and stared. I stared back at them and felt even more uncomfortable than before. The only place to really be alone is to leave, which I often do.

To be honest, I understand why colleges are focusing on collaboration because the business world focuses on collaboration. If you are not highly sociable and good at collaborating, you are less likely to be hired and promoted. Colleges are supposed to prepare us for the workforce, so it makes sense that they are trying to foster the skills that will help us succeed in the business world. The summer after my sophomore year, I worked at an accounting internship with a company that owned several restaurants and country clubs. Our office was an open plan layout, with cubicles facing each other. Every project we worked on, we all worked on together. We were in communication with each other every moment of the day, and at the end of each day I left to go home exhausted.

To be clear, I understand the positive correlation between group work and superior quality of work. Studies have shown that during guessing games to guess the amount of M&m’s in a jar, individual guesses might be off, but when averaged together, the amount is surprisingly accurate. When minds come together, brilliant ideas happen. I understand this. But, I can’t deny that my best thoughts come when I have time and space to think. In a group where extroverts are present, extroverts think out loud and play off others. Introverts might seem quiet and disengaged, but we think differently. We may be playing out a scenario in our heads or thinking through a process internally. Our inner lives are full of thinking, and I think this should be encouraged.

Having group learning and group work be a constant factor in the workplace and in schools can stunt introverts’ natural thinking process. When I am in a group, I’m certainly not giving my best work. To effectively utilize half of all people, we need to give them space to think. Imagine the incredible waste going on because we are so insistent on catering towards extrovert-focused learning. These spaces can first be administered in colleges, because colleges are where the workforce is shaped.  

The people who have a say in college life might not consider making spaces for people to be alone because the idea of collaboration producing more creativity and innovation is prevalent. I’d argue that focus is most important for creativity and innovation. Extroverts might focus better when they have stimulation from a group of people, but introverts are most focused when by themselves.  

Susan Cain in her book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, says, “the trick for introverts is to honor their styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.” For introverts to succeed in college, and then in the workforce, spaces need to be made for introverts to do their best thinking and innovating. Collaboration can be good some of the time, but the option to work and live alone should exist. I suggest allowing students the option to live in single dorm rooms and creating more single study room spaces. I’d at least like the choice. (930)