Welcome to edition #12 of our news series, where we share with you the latest resources we’ve found on social skills, making friends, and more. In this edition, we’ll learn about 10 simple steps to make and keep friends, and explore how etiquette classes are helping tech-savvy Millennials socialize in the real world. Don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter so you don’t miss any future editions!
10 Simple Steps to Making and Keeping Friends
Making friends as adults isn’t easy. With so many obligations bogging us down, such as working full time, family time, errands and chores, we can feel overwhelmed when it comes to the idea of socializing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are some simple steps you can take to increase the odds of both making and keeping friends, no matter what stage of life you’re in.
This article on reliawire.com offers some simple, yet powerful, ways to improve your social life. One interesting concept is assuming familiarity. When you talk to a stranger like an old friend you’ve known for years, it dramatically speeds up the friendship process. Try it! Other things you can do are to simply smile, make your current friends feel like a priority in your life, share meaningful conversations and experiences, and know when it’s time to walk away from friendships that are no longer working so you can make room in your life for a new and exciting social circle.
That’s a helpful list, and a nice reminder. But if you need the real deal on what it takes to getting strangers to become your friends, I invite you to learn everything we share with you on this site, the newsletter, and in the book, Get The Friends You Want. Some friendship skills are just necessary, and if you learn them, you could really transform your life.
The thing is, I wrote GTFYW, with the busy person you probably are, in mind. I didn’t write it for people who wanted to “attempt” to make friends; I didn’t write it for people who had hundreds of hours to invest in improving their social life. I wrote it for people like me, who look to get the most results (friends, fun, understanding, community, adventures with friends, etc.) for the least amount of unnecessary effort.
Tech-Savvy Millennials Still Need Help Socializing “IRL”
Millennials are social media and tech-savvy… but how are they at real “face time?” Not so great! Overall, the millennial generation is lacking in social skills because they’re so used to computers and communicating via text and apps. Real-life interactions are becoming a foreign concept.
How can they learn some social skills “IRL” (in real life)? This article on CBSLocal.com introduces millennials to etiquette classes, where they learn everything from body language and eye contact to how to properly use cutlery and hold a wine glass on a date. But it’s not just about dating! Putting away your phones and getting back to real face time will improve all of your relationships, including those with friends. Myka Meier is the founder of Beaumont Etiquette, a company helping millennials polish their manners. In a more modern, gender-neutral manner, she helps bring back the etiquette of normal human interaction, one class at a time.
More and more people are realizing that they need to upgrade their social skills. The new tech-habits are not helping us get better at making friends.
But do you need “Etiquette training”? Maybe so, but probably not. You can easily pick up the basics of etiquette on youtube if you wanted to.
If you can’t start conversations, keep them going, make the other person interested in talking more, and getting to know you; then those are the critical social skills you need to focus on.
What you do need is real social skills, and etiquette is very far from being enough. If you can’t start conversations, keep them going, make the other person interested in talking more, and getting to know you; then those are the critical social skills you need to focus on. They’re not optional.
Other skills, like building friendship, making plans, meeting people, joining and forming groups of friends, are also critical social skills. And that’s why I focus on sharing those with you, and not waste time on the stuff you can easily live without. If you want to learn more on how you can learn all those skills and get your social life to the next level, I invite you to go read my book if you haven’t already.
Best of luck,
– Paul Sanders