Official ominous sign(s)

Perhaps my genuine biggest piece of socializing advice as someone who spent years of my life feeling wholly incapable of positively interacting with other people is to just ask the other person questions about themselves. Like that’s it. People love answering questions. They really love thoughtful follow-up questions. They love feeling like someone else is interested in them, their interests, their lives, their opinions. At some point in your questioning they will say something that reminds you of a funny / interesting story. Tell it. You will be remembered as the person who asks a lot of questions, makes people feel like they matter, and tells good stories. boom. done.

This may sound preachy, but if you’re in your teens or 20s please take care to develop the habit of speaking positively about people behind their backs. Gossip is unavoidable, and yes it does allow people to bond, and yes some people deserve to be shit talked. But I think being negative about things is literally just nature, whereas trying to be positive about things and people is a quality you have to be very intentional about . If this does not apply to you, good for you. But for most people I think it does. Im not lauding toxic positivity so much as saying that if there’s space to speak positively about someone behind their back, it’s better to take that route.