Ryan, your anecdotal remarks are spot-on, in my mind. I kind of see it this way.....I agree that it is extroverts that need constant entertainment to amuse them, because they cannot deal with "quiet time." They always need other people around, the TV, interaction with frivolous games, or they're on the cell phone, etc. Sometimes, even, they need constant confrontation with others - in the workplace or elsewhere - to chase away their boredom. As you said, they are bored with themselves.
But Sullivan does not "go there," with his iPod analysis, as I had expected. If you look closely, he applies his critique in an odd sense, that is, he applies it to public situations where he thinks that others are void of proper interaction with *total strangers,* and instead, they shut themselves up in some world where exclusion from these folks is their new norm. After all, why bring up subways and airports as valid points of interaction, if civilized, social interaction is what he is trying to point out? Either place is almost akin to socializing in the airport lavatory. (Only women do that, and in nightclub lavatories.)
I think he just got a bit turned around, and lost his sense of direction and where he was going with the piece. But perhaps he is talking about extroverts whose extroversion is being complicated and segued by a new form of "annoying" extroversion. Perhaps? I dunno, the piece is odd.
For me, the most annoying form of constant amusement/entertainment/stimulation for the extroverts is the mass adaptation of the cell phone as the cure-all for quiet time and being alone. But that's a whole 'nother post...
