Socializing is interacting with other people. There are many different forms. It could consist of simply making small talk while waiting in line — commenting on the weather, the progress of the line, complimenting and asking about their clothing, etc. You could attend an event with friends and comment on it while it’s happening, making jokes or rating the performance. It may even include little verbal interaction, like playing a game or visiting a museum where talking is discouraged and thus limited to commenting on whether or not you like or are interested in a particular exhibit.
Even if you don’t particularly enjoy socializing or find it awkward and difficult, doing it can improve both your professional and personal life. If you feel lonely, simply making small talk with a stranger can cheer you up and make you feel connected to society at large. Through socialization, you may learn about things that will help you save money, find people willing to do favors for you, or discover opportunities for helping people that may improve your self-worth. Socializing is also useful for hearing about professional opportunities and improving professional relationships. People are more likely to do business with, or at least feel better about doing business with, people whom they feel they know on a personal level and like for reasons other than how competent a business partner they are. Socializing may allow you to establish connections that aid you in advancing in your field or finding new job opportunities.
As someone who suffers from social anxiety, I often find socializing with others awkward and exhausting. However, my enjoyment of it has increased over the years, and I attribute this to my keeping several key points in mind. For one, people do not continue to or go out of their way to socialize with people whom they regard as annoying or boring, and you are not being graded on your performance. Even if you feel uncomfortable and self-conscious, it is likely that the person you are interacting with doesn’t notice your discomfort, and if they do, and it is unlikely that they will hold it against you. Also, if they seem to be enjoying socializing with you, take it at face value. If they didn’t enjoy it, you would know; they would avoid you or cut their interactions with you short.
This RichardStep Marketing survey was designed to get a better understanding of what really gets under the skin of those folks out there dealing with socializing. Read over the awesome answers below and see how you can tailor your business to address the frustrations of the people most relevant to your business niche market. Want more? Read the 125 other topics in the ‘Frustrations’ survey category by clicking here.
The following list are uncut and raw responses of the things this group found most frustrating in their daily lives.
Socializing
- For these few days, I am really frustrated with how to adapt to my new environment. i’m in korea right now for an exchange student programmes which is not my country. I kind of getting burst into anger sometimes with a really solid reason. but I do not show my anger or my frustration to anyone. but yeah, i’m feeling quite sad. I don’t know whether it is just me or what, but I felt alone, being left out of nowhere.
- How can we move forward to the time when we accept everyone as an equal member of the human race? I’m frustrated by cell phones everywhere. I see families out together and interacting with the phone rather than each other. Family time is precious and can be lost in the blink of an eye.
- I have just finished dealing with a lot of exams in school today. I find little tests and quizzes helpful at times, but in school, I find that the large majority of them are pointless. The exams I have just taken are standardized tests, and while they can serve as helpful guidelines, their application in schools are completely different. Nothing is ever actually expanded upon enough to be useful, and one is generally left to one’s own devices to achieve and improve anything effectively. I have also been dealing with divergence from the “normal” path. I want to guide myself and make my own choices in anything I do, and while I have a lot of freedom and legroom to do so, I cannot take control of all the things in my life. There are changes that I would make in my life that I know would be highly beneficial, but I am not allowed to make any of these changes, which is very frustrating. Not only am I not able to make these choices, but the differences I have from others leaves me feeling alienated; I feel that I cannot connect with these people. Either they lack empathy and don’t understand, or act in an immature manner. Life goes on, people will continue to grow, and I will find new people to cherish and befriend. But, with things going as they are right now, I feel stuck.
- I met someone at a party and we vibed together, talked till the morning light. We talked about seeng each other in the future, but nothing happened since. I was worried for days I screwed up something and analyzed our conversations over and over and over trying to find where I could have gone wrong.
- My life is in a very good place right now but usually staying at home not seeing people for long periods of time really frusturates me. I feel that the reason this frusturates me is because I enjoy being around people and am energized by this, I have learned this means that I am an extrovert.
- Social relationships in general are quite frustrating. Being a High Schooler, It’s expected that I waste time learning about other people’s relationships. The only person who matters to me is me, and that’s because without me, I couldn’t do anything for anybody else. That may seem convoluted, and it is, to an extent, that is part of my ideology. While I do enjoy my own social relationships, I think it’s idiotic to get mixed into other people’s affaires.
- The most frustrating thing I have had to do in the past few days is to go out for a meal when I was exhausted and just wanted to rest. I did not want to disappoint the people I was going out with so I forced myself out the door and sat through it but it was frustrating purely because I just wanted to relax.
- Waiting for visitors who I had never met to arrive mid-morning and stay for lunch as arranged. They were very late. This was frustrating because everything was ready and I felt I couldn’t do anything and had to waste time. I was also a bit annoyed, because I considered their lateness was rude.
- When I was playing a game and everyone wasn’t doing the fight right just so they could do it a complicated way for a achievement but was causing us to die multiple times and instead of stopping and doing the easier smarter way they still tried the less smart and harder way even knowing some people in our group wasn’t smart enough for the challenge