Four Levels of Social Entrapment

Guest blogger today - I haven't felt the motivation to write for a while, most likely because I was struck down with my first bout of the flu in around 6 years on my birthday last week. I spent three whole days in bed, not reading, not watching DVD's, just sleeping. It was rather unpleasant! I'll get back into it shortly, I promise, but for now I just couldn't resist sharing this with you - absolutely hilarious, because it's true!!

The Four Levels of Social Entrapment from Hyperbole and a Half

Level 1: Brief encounters with kind-of friends

There is a special kind of awkwardness between two people who don't know each other well enough to interact effectively, but are familiar enough that ignoring each other's presence isn't really an option.  No matter how much you like the person, you dread encountering them because you only know two things about each other and once you've covered those two things, there is nothing else and that is terrifying because you aren't good at ending conversations and that makes the horrible, strained silence all but inevitable.

But eventually you do run into one of these acquaintances and even though you both sense the impending awkwardness and desperately wish to avoid it, you have a social obligation to say hello. So you do, and the conversation derails even more quickly than you expected.

And then there you are, standing clumsily in the parking lot of Best Buy, frantically trying to keep the conversation afloat until one of you can think of a decently acceptable way to end the encounter. You stop caring about whether you make sense or not.  You'll say anything to avoid silence.  

At some point, the rapidly deteriorating subject material forces you to give up on being polite and just settle for the first bumbling phrase that comes out of you.  

Luckily, your artless delivery doesn't matter. The other person is just thankful that they finally have an excuse to stop talking to you. 

For the rest of the entry, go here!