DoctorMo's Blog

I was talking today with a good friend of mine about social situations. Most of us geeks are not terribly sociable, either because we’ve been tormented, because we’re not very good at it or because we quite like being alone.

But social interactions are what drive the majority of the world’s people. And when you consider how much people will change themselves in order to fit in, it made me wonder about just how much social flexibility people really have.

Is it possible for instance to make a distinction between the way you change how you act towards someone in order to be in a productive relationship and faking social interaction with a mask which it there to hide your true self? Does it all boil down to intentions, lies or perhaps the difference between bending interation and falsifying feelings.

It’s certainly interesting to me, how much of what one says and how one says it, is due to the person your talking to? Is it an inflection or can it be controlled?

Answers on an HP postcard strapped to a pallet.

I wonder if there is a social flexibility quotient. A way of saying weather someone can be flexible enough to cope with these modes, but finds these social situations difficult. In my experience this can be anything from emergency situations to parties with musicians and plenty of pot smoking. From visiting your grandmother to a reconciliation drink.