On Social and Anti-social Skills

Posted on December 5, 2007  in Social Awkwardness

Today I want to nag about social skills. So, human being are definitely social creatures but what if some of us who doesn’t really like to socialize? The closest example would be my friend, Susan. She’s definitely not a weirdo or anything but she’s not interested in knowing other people and needs 90% of her time as “alone Susan time”. Not that she’s the type of person who is self obsessed, suicidal or mentally disturbed. Susan just hates to socialize.

I totally understand her. In general, people can be so judgmental and one glance at you and they start to judge in their minds whether you are a nice person or a sucky person to be with. Even I judge at Susan when I first met her a couple years back. And my judgment turned to the latter. Let’s face it, socializing requires a lot of untaught skills. Yeah, it’s that complex. You might think that it will come naturally over time but it doesn’t. You need to think what your words are going to impact the people around you and and how to approach them in a way that compliments your relationships with them.

So, to say that Susan is anti-social is totally wrong. Or not really correct. She’s okay to socialize sometimes, except only with the people she already knew that she is comfortable with She’s even quite nice to strangers. For me, that behavior is totally acceptable in our society but I’m really pissed off at people who said that she’s a party pooper or a pink elephant in any social events like parties and dinners. In case you’re wondering, Susan didn’t have the infamous Asperger syndrome like a certain person on a popular reality show recently. Here’s a definition of the Asperger’s syndrome from Wikipedia:

One of several autism spectrum disorders (ASD) characterized by difficulties in social interaction and by restricted and stereotyped interests and activities. AS is distinguished from the other ASDs in having no general delay in language or cognitive development. Although not mentioned in standard diagnostic criteria, motor clumsiness and atypical use of language are frequently reported.

As for Susan, she’s completely normal from the day she was born. That being said, let’s treat people like Susan as we treat other people we knew, with dignity and with respect. They may have come to us as abrasive and cold, but they just can’t help it. That’s my social awkwardness ramblings for now, tune in for the next post for more crappy delicious stuff.

Crappy Comments

2 Responses to “On Social and Anti-social Skills”

  1. anucia on August 28th, 2008 11:19 pm

    Oh Susan, that makes two of us!
    People can be such shits sometimes, really not worth the bother I think

  2. mar on September 16th, 2008 1:27 pm

    Susan may be an introvert, no? i dont think malaysians have yet to grasp that concept.but i am kinda like her and i agree with ya. people judge easily because its “easy”. if you seem friendly then you are a nice person.its kinda pathetic that they judge appearance over inner personality.i dont think anybody hates to socialize tho….just different approaches to socializing.unfortunately majority of the darned human population are obnoxious social fugtards. . . .

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