Over the weekend, a potentially unpleasant social situation I was involved in didn’t turn into lots of horrible drama. Everyone involved, as far as I can see, handled it well and with great maturity; I was told by someone external to but aware of events that I acted very well in the aftermath. As far as I can tell, everything is cool and back to normal with all involved parties now.
What I have learned:
I am better at certain social things, such as acting normally and avoiding awkwardness, than I had realized or expected.
I am better at handling my own emotions, and I think at modelling and considering the emotions of others, than I had expected.
I am not good at judging other people’s level of drunkenness.
EDIT: Maybe it would be useful to put in some resources I feel have helped me to frame social interactions and lead me to these successes?
A very good advice-column blog called Captain Awkward has been great for helping me think about my own and others’ emotions, and how to deal with them appropriately. Casually reading feminist blogs in general has given me a better insight to some social interactions (not necessarily to do with gender issues). I’ve been doing this on occasion for about 8 months, and I think it’s helped a few times.
More recently, discussion of “creepiness” and social behaviour has been something I’ve read a bit about—not so much that I’m worried about being creepy myself (that’s a small part of my motivation) but out of a general interest in gender interaction. A lot of this has been through Reddit; though it gets a bad press for misogyny, there’s a lot of internal criticism that goes on, and areas dedicated to these topics, so it can be a useful resource for anyone who wants to read discussions in this area.
Over the weekend, a potentially unpleasant social situation I was involved in didn’t turn into lots of horrible drama. Everyone involved, as far as I can see, handled it well and with great maturity; I was told by someone external to but aware of events that I acted very well in the aftermath. As far as I can tell, everything is cool and back to normal with all involved parties now.
What I have learned:
I am better at certain social things, such as acting normally and avoiding awkwardness, than I had realized or expected.
I am better at handling my own emotions, and I think at modelling and considering the emotions of others, than I had expected.
I am not good at judging other people’s level of drunkenness.
EDIT: Maybe it would be useful to put in some resources I feel have helped me to frame social interactions and lead me to these successes?
A very good advice-column blog called Captain Awkward has been great for helping me think about my own and others’ emotions, and how to deal with them appropriately. Casually reading feminist blogs in general has given me a better insight to some social interactions (not necessarily to do with gender issues). I’ve been doing this on occasion for about 8 months, and I think it’s helped a few times.
More recently, discussion of “creepiness” and social behaviour has been something I’ve read a bit about—not so much that I’m worried about being creepy myself (that’s a small part of my motivation) but out of a general interest in gender interaction. A lot of this has been through Reddit; though it gets a bad press for misogyny, there’s a lot of internal criticism that goes on, and areas dedicated to these topics, so it can be a useful resource for anyone who wants to read discussions in this area.