How To Be More Socially Aware
How to be more socially aware!
When it comes to making new friendships and maintaining them, being able to have social awareness is incredibly important. Because if you’re not sure if you’re doing something that’s socially wrong or right, it’s going to be hard to keep friendships if you’re unknowingly making mistakes. At least in my experience in my early life, I was making a lot of social mistakes that probably cost me a ton of friendships. After all, a lot of people don’t want to hang out with someone who is socially inept.
But don’t worry, that’s what I’m here for. While I certainly made lots of social mistakes back then, you don’t necessarily have to! Today, I will give you some guidance on this topic.
In this post, I’ll give you 5 tips on how to be more socially aware. These strategies will help you avoid making the wrong moves with social interactions while growing the ones you have by being smarter with your friends. Some of these tips are simple, while others are more subtle.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
When it comes to social interactions and being more aware, the first thing you should do is assess how your friendships are today. Are you noticing that your friends are not inviting you to stuff? Or when you’re interacting with others, they seem put off by you for some reason, but you’re not sure why?
If so, then you may be having issues being socially aware. Because if you were socially aware, you would notice that you are exhibiting unattractive behaviors to your circle of friends.
But don’t feel bad; many people don’t have the natural ability to “read the room,” including myself. As I mentioned before, I was off-putting to a lot of people back then and I wasn’t even aware of it for the longest time. To even know that you’re doing something wrong, that is a big step! And by being aware and mindful about it, you’re making the right steps when it comes to improving your social awareness!
The next thing I would advise you to do is find people who are already good at socializing and interacting with people. That’s the quickest way to learn how to be more socially aware. I can tell you from my own experience; learning from the best is the shortcut!
When I was on my own personal road to improvement, I found a few people to hangout with who were socially savvy. I learned SO much from them, including:
- What I did wrong in a social interaction (things I wasn’t even aware of)
- Get over my own self-limiting beliefs by watching them talk and do things easily
- How to interact with people in a group
One example I can think of was when I was in a group setting and talking to everyone. I made the mistake of making an inside joke to a friend and while my friend understood what I meant, the other people did not. After the event was over, my social savvy friend told me that I shouldn’t make comments that only a certain few would get, because it comes off as cliquey. I learned from this experience and made sure to appeal to everyone in a group conversation, not just a few.
Stuff like this is much easier to learn when you surround yourself with people who are more socially aware than you are. I wouldn’t be as experienced if it weren’t for these people who taught me so much!
3. Listen to less what they say but what they do.
The next important tip I can give you is paying attention during your social interactions. Yes, the next time you are out at an event or with your friends, pay close attention to it. But don’t just listen to what your friends are saying but what they’re doing and how they’re reacting to you. The old saying goes, “actions speak louder than words” and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to social awareness. Your friends may say one thing, but do another.
For example, one time I told someone that I couldn’t make it to a scheduled event. While that person was saying it’s fine, I could tell by their reaction that they were not happy about that. So I decided to change my mind and tried my best to make it for the event, even though they said it was fine. I could tell by their facial reaction and anger in their voice that they were in fact, NOT okay with it. As I said, actions speak louder than words!
So the next time you are around your friends, pay attention to how they react to you. See when they react positively to something you say or do, as well as any negative reactions. Over time, you’ll get an idea of what makes people attracted to you versus what they don’t like. Practice makes perfect!
4. You can always ask.
What makes being socially aware so tough is that a lot of people won’t be honest about how they feel about you. Either they want to save face and don’t say anything, or they want to be polite and wont admit that you are doing something that they don’t like.
But in my experience, if you are willing to ask them and confront them about something, they’ll more than likely to tell you their concerns. While there is an expectation (unfairly) that you need to be socially competent, there is also the understanding that you are not psychic and you can’t read how everyone is feeling.
For example, one time I noticed someone just did not like me for whatever reason. After a few occasions where they were acting rudely to me, I just straight up mentioned that I felt the hostility coming from them and if there was anything to clear up, they could let me know. Finally they mentioned how I was upsetting them. I apologized to them about it and while they still probably didn’t like me, it did help with the hostility and things were generally okay between us to.
I felt like they told me the truth not to patch things up with me. But had they not told me about their grievances towards me, then how could I resolve the issue? It would have been their fault for not speaking up when I gave them an opportunity to do so.
Now hopefully you won’t have to be in a similar scenario. But if you feel something is off with you and your friend(s) and you’re not sure why, you can always just ask them. You’re not trying to necessarily be confrontational; you’re trying to be a good friend!
5. Practice makes perfect.
Last but not least, you want to put yourself out there and practice socializing as much as you can in order to learn how to be more socially aware. On top of observing and paying attention, you have to go out a lot with your friends and talk to lots of people to really get a feel of what’s right and wrong socially. Because one group of people can react differently from another.
But after a while, you’ll start to notice some patterns and learn how to pick up social cues. For example, when I was younger I’d make a lot of jokes when out with people. Maybe it was to mask my nervousness or that I have a crazy sense of humor. But either way, I noticed it was turning people off; some people thought that I was a low self esteem clown.
So with experience, I learned to cut down on the humor and I noticed I was getting better reactions from friends and groups. This is just one example of a trait I learned. But it took lots of experience and observation to learn all the social awareness things that I know now.
So if you want to get good at social awareness, be patient and practice going out and socializing!
Summary
To summarize, here are the 5 tips on how to be more socially aware:
- Assess your social relationships at this time.
- Find people who are good at social awareness.
- Listen to less what they say but what they do.
- You can always ask.
- Practice makes perfect.
And there you have it; 5 tips on how to be more socially aware. I hope you found this post insightful!
If you have any questions or feedback, leave them in the comments below!
