My wife and I would never describe ourselves as being very social people, however, we’re often in many social gatherings or a family get-together. Although we describe ourselves as being “anti-social”, the truth is we are very social, but we highly value our quiet and non-social times (which are infrequent, and thus maybe our desire for down-time is why we describe ourselves anti-social). We may grit our teeth with an eyebrow furl if we were to describe ourselves as “social-butterflies”, but in all honesty, although we don’t go out of our way to be actively socializing or going to social events frequently, we bounce around conversation groups with ease, and often attract complete strangers and can have long in-depth conversations with these strangers as if they were long-time friends.

This Thursday, we were at a dinner show for my wife’s company’s holiday party, and about an hour into the party my wife needed to make a trip the car to grab her ID to order a drink. It was very cold outside , and this venue had the private party going on before opening the gates to the public, and being the “anti-social” people that we are, my wife quickly began conversation with a couple in their 50’s outside who weren’t part of the company party, but she sneaked these strangers in by simply saying hi and welcoming them into the party. After sneaking them in, she sent them on their way to get warm and relax.

About a half-hour later my wife saw them sitting with a drink and decided to introduce me to them and “confess” to me what she had done. Since I know my wife, this was not a surprising confession, but I laughed with the entertaining story she told who they were and how she met them. We easily talked with this couple for nearly 45min before the show began, talking everything from relationships, real-estate, work, family, and many other conversations. As the rest of their group arrived, they introduced us to them and again told the story of how we met to their amusement. After we said our good-byes and went to our seats for the dinner show, we never saw them again for the rest of the night, and likely will never see them ever again. We didn’t exchange any contact info, but the conversation was great and got me thinking about socializing events.

We interact with a tremendous amount of people each day, whether we try to or not, our society has connected the world to be closer and closer through bigger cities, and broad range of social media. From everyone from grocery check-out, customer service from across the world, buying items from different countries, to emails and texts, and of course all sorts of social networks, we as a society are social though design. Communication is a constant, no matter how much some people fight it, it’s nearly impossible to not be social. Some people seem to socialize every aspect of each hour, while others can have a “conversation” by simply giving a head tilt to greet hello to a stranger walking by.

In the vast ocean of social-networking, I wonder how many great friendships are lost at sea because society floods us with too much socializing media. Think about it, think of how many instances you’ve had a quick conversation with a stranger and then never see that person again (not referring to the conversations you’re trying to get out of politely). I can recount dozens of times I’ve been in line for something and then idle chit-chat becomes a 5-15min conversation that is quite interesting, but becomes “interrupted” by the very reason I was in line. The conversation ends  abruptly with a farewell and hand wave as I go on with the rest of the day. I wonder how many of those interactions I’ve had could have led up to great friendships (or “family” as I generally describe friends), or business opportunities.

The world moves quick around us, never slowing down, constant development, whether we accept it or not. Socializing is an important aspect of living and necessary for our species, but I do feel media has taken things out of hand by flooding us with so much socializing, that we lose focus of true conversations. As society continues to grow, and media is a never-ending force, we need to learn to minimize our lesser meaningful media time investment, and further develop and focus our finite amount of time each day towards focusing on meaningful conversations and developing our personal network in life.

Until next time, keep LivingLife, and take care of yourself and those you love!

Have comments/questions? Please feel free to email me at my2cents@livinglife-blog.com

“Remember, I’m NOT a qualified doctor, trainer, physiologist, philosopher, or have any other certified qualification. I’m only someone who’s passionate to learn & develop personal skills, habits, goals & finding a balance life-style, while sharing my journey through experiences.

– Developer of LivingLife-Blog”