I was pondering today the effect that physical presence has on individuals and consequently on how someone uses their IMs to interact with others. I thought taking it to the forum might stimulate some interesting discussion.
As a particularly tall, not very shy, and intellectually demanding female, I've always seemed to demand a lot of deference in those around me without actually trying. For whatever reason, my stature coupled with my confidence appears to intimidate others despite the fact that I'm generally a very inclusive and genial individual. It doesn't seem to matter where I go. I walk into a room and all eyes are on me, or I walk into the bank on a busy afternoon and someone will come and deal with me ahead of several others. This thought really hit home today when I was on the elevator and noticed, not for the first time, that no matter who is on the elevator (male or female) or where I am everyone always lets me off first. It's so bizarre.
With direct interaction (like a party or hanging with friends, etc) the effects of physical presence become the most apparent to me. People always seem to be scrambling to make sure I'm happy or defer to me on everything. It also puts me in a place where everyone expects that I'll be in control of things. Basically they slip me into this Se slot where I'm going to make all the decisions and direct the plans of the day, etc. God, it's the worst with men. I won't even get started on that. It confuses me a lot. Consequently, as a measure to counter-balance the intimidating effect of my presence, I've learned to channel mass amount of Fe/Si when initially meeting people to try to put them at ease. It's almost automatic to me now, but it's also really annoying. If I don't do the Fe/Si dance, and just be my regular ENTp self, the people I meet seem to see me with some kind of strange reverence. "Wow, Vero is so amazing *googly eyes*" or they compliment me constantly on this that or the other thing. It's really frustrating because I don't see myself that way, I don't think I'm particularly amazing or domineering, and I just want to be a normal regular person.
Anyways, how does physical presence effect you? Does it change how you naturally want to direct the use of your valued functions? For instance, a lot of people talk about small-man syndrome. How does your physical presence affect the way people interact with you?