Being socially awkward, it's like this weight that's pressing down on you until the circle finally comes around to you and you just deflate completely. Oh god, I can't even begin to describe how much getting-to-know-you games or ice-breakers or whatever you want to call it stresses me out. Because you've already rejected the kind gesture of water, you must suffer and accept the consequence! A different person may speak up and say, "You know what, I would actually love some water, thank you," but in all honesty you'll probably let that thirst go unquenched until you're offered again in an hour or so. Not unlike the episode of Spongebob that the meme is based on, your mouth slowly starts to dry up as you continue to talk as if nothing is wrong. You're casually chatting with your friend about how their family just adopted a new dog or how their recent vacation went, but any interest or impression is completely synthesized because all you can think of is, "I need water!" You're at a friend's place and almost as soon as you get there, one of your friends (or their parents/partners) asks, "Would you like some water?" To which you reply, "Oh no I'm fine," because who wants to risk being an inconvenience, right? Except in mere minutes, you're not fine. It's really not that cryptic when it's coming from someone we know is our friend, rather than, say, some random Tinder match, but it's difficult not to overreact when losing this friend over something dumb would mean having to venture out once again into the dreaded realm of friend making. For example, in this admittedly outdated meme which perfectly captures a socially awkward person's thought process when we get something cryptic like a one worded reply. With this mindset, even the tiniest thing can make us doubt the entire structure of our friendships. Even being invited places feels surreal when we finally find some true friends because we're just so used to being the one in the friend group who gets left out. Because it's so hard for us to make friends to begin with, I feel like we're just so shocked that we somehow succeeded at making even a few friends that we've convinced ourselves. So obviously the majority of us, of the socially awkward class, actually do have at least one friend, and that friend (or friends) probably appreciates us very much.
In fact, being confronted with some of these cues and norms may even terrify us.Īs we navigate this weird socialized world in an attempt to feel "normal," we still tend to ask ourselves, "why on earth am I like this?" Although, science offers no real explanation other than the response that we were just born this way, there are some memes out there on the internet that are sort of creepily accurate in summing up just how living as a generally socially awkward person really is.ĭo you dread large social gatherings? Does small talk seem incredibly unnatural to you? Are you convinced that you come off as incredibly annoying or incredibly b*tchy to others, even if others think you are nice? If you answered "yes" to any of the above, then you'll find the list below all too relatable. While we mean well, we tend to not pick up on certain social cues, or even enjoy a lot of social norms. We're not necessarily introverts, just a small group of millions of regular people, introverted and extroverted, who aren't exactly good with, well, other people. Socially awkward people: there's really no one quite like us.