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Jekabz
Butterfly
Butterfly

Joined: 8 Oct 2016
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 11

26 Oct 2016, 5:24 am

Hello!
Since most of us, including me, suffer from the lack of quality social encounter, I decided to share what is my understanding of how social stuff works. Please add your own strategies, observations in comments!

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Little background info:
* Humans operate in groups, there two kinds:
1) Primary group - long lasting relationships, close friendship.
2) Secondary group - workplace or a class.

* Lizard part of our brain will try to asap put every human we meet in one of these categories:
1) Friend
2) Enemy
3) Potential sexual partner
4) Nobody

* Spoken language is in evolutionary terms a newcomer, therefore lizard brain uses things like body language, facial expressions, tone and rhithm of voice, eye contact, smell and maybe something else aswell to put everybody in one of the aforementioned groups.
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If you want to make friends, you have to more or less follow these steps:
1) Make sure you dont look and smell horrible.
2) If you havent already, join a large enough secondary social group.
3) Within a secondary group, go ahead and make people talk to you by approaching them with smile, open body language (show your palms, so that the lizard brain sees that you carry no weapons, you will seem to be friendly and approachable to others this way). All you have to do is first to introduce yourself, shake hands, even with females, and then ask the most interesting questions that you can come up with. Watch their body language to see what their attitude is.
4) Repeat the third step with as many people you can, until such time that you feel comfortable meeting with some person outside of the secondary group. Follow up on their verbal and nonverbal leads to further conversation/relationship. If you meet the person or persons outside of the secondary group more than once, there is a good chance that a primary group aka friendship/relationship has been formed.
Warning: do not stalk people!
Warning: do not trust what is literrary being said, people will often tell the "white lies" to make them or yourself feel better, or they will say things in an indirect way. Look for repetitions in their speech or actions when what they say does not make 100% logical sense or you do not understand the motivation is of what they said. Chances are they are telling you things in an indirect way!
Warning: Do not expect to have what you say to be interpreted in a direct way - sometimes people will prefer to read an indirect meaning of what you say when there is none!
Extra warning: People will often initially act as if they are your friends, when in reality they dont give a s**t. Only when the friendly behaviour is consistent and continuous, can you start to trust what they portrey.
Extra warning When there is a chance that other person may want something from you and is acting all friendly, do not trust any word that they say. It is then safe to assume that they are lying all the time. Look at their body language for confirmation.
4) Keep in touch, or you will loose friends

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Note: We are naturally predisposed to place more trust with people we percieve to be from our tribe - same color and texture of hair, similar phizique etc. Do not trust that! Its false - be suspicious - just because they are from our tribe, does not mean they are friends.
You could however use this to your advantage, as you will inevitably be percieved more positively by people with similar body traits, or even clothing.
----

I myself have failed horribly and repetitively and currently I only have one distant friend (primary social group) and I am no member of any secondary social groups. To counter that, I have devised the previously explained strategy and I am looking for a chance to join some secondary group, but the options are severly limited.



Mack01
Hummingbird
Hummingbird

Joined: 31 Aug 2016
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 19
Location: United Kingdom

26 Oct 2016, 4:14 pm

Hello Jekabz. Well I do have my own way of helping those who want to make friends but I've already shared that on a forum thread of mine, so feel free to ask if youd like a link. But certainly it's interesting hearing what others think is a right approach, hence this thread catching my attention.

In regards to your observation, I think before anyone makes any comment, that your personal definition of a "friend", as in the type you'll expect to have attained through following those four steps. That would be key to assessing the usefulness of your 4 steps. And that's of course if you wanted feedback.



asgoodasme
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

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Joined: 28 Jan 2016
Gender: Female
Posts: 35

03 Nov 2016, 1:20 pm

I would like to add a tip that has helped me in the past:

Find curious but non intrusive questions to ask people about themselves. These can be provided by the current topic being discussed, (what they did that day, current events, their jobs). This helps find common ground and interests.



questor
Veteran
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Joined: 23 Apr 2011
Age: 65
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,696
Location: Twilight Zone

11 Nov 2016, 8:07 am

The one about trying to smell good when meeting people is a problem for me, as I have an odor problem that showering and deodorant don't seem to help. There is also my liking for garlic. A recent example: I had garlic powder on a sandwich I had for breakfast the other day, then showered, changed into totally clean clothes (no crumbs, etc.), and brushed my teeth. Then my stepmom stopped by to take me shopping, as I have car troubles right now. Later she mentioned that she could smell garlic on me! After a shower, change, and fang brushing!! ! My other body odor problem wasn't acting up, as I had not been exerting myself too much, but somehow the garlic odor survived through the shower, change, and tooth brushing. One more thing, the shampoo I used had menthol in it, and I used it as a body wash, too, as I like the smell of it. Even through that, the garlic smell came through. Don't have a solution to this, as garlic is good for your health, and I like how it makes food taste. Guess I'm stuck with the problem.

As for making friends, I tried hard as a kid, and young adult, but finally gave up. I don't like the stress involved, and would rather be alone than have to deal with the extra stress. I find I prefer being alone, anyway.

Hope those who want to socialize learn how, and manage okay. :D


_________________
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.--Henry David Thoreau


asgoodasme
Tufted Titmouse
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Joined: 28 Jan 2016
Gender: Female
Posts: 35

16 Nov 2016, 3:17 pm

questor wrote:
The one about trying to smell good when meeting people is a problem for me, as I have an odor problem that showering and deodorant don't seem to help. There is also my liking for garlic. A recent example: I had garlic powder on a sandwich I had for breakfast the other day, then showered, changed into totally clean clothes (no crumbs, etc.), and brushed my teeth. Then my stepmom stopped by to take me shopping, as I have car troubles right now. Later she mentioned that she could smell garlic on me! After a shower, change, and fang brushing!! ! My other body odor problem wasn't acting up, as I had not been exerting myself too much, but somehow the garlic odor survived through the shower, change, and tooth brushing.


I have noticed that if I eat enough garlic, I can smell it from every area on my body, all my pores and mucus membranes. Its like once you eat it, it permeates your system on the inside. But fortunately, I love garlic smell and I haven't had any problem with others, they usually just comment that it smells like an Italian restaurant, lol.

As for any other body odors, have you tried clinical strength deodorant? Just curious.