The Art Of Socializing

May 28, 2010

Interview with Susan Roane, author of the book How to Work a Room, Revised Edition: Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing

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Mike Carruthers:
Because of technology we are socializing - REALLY socializing: face-to-face, shaking hands kind of socializing, less and less.

Susan Roane:
We now have something called techno friends. I have a friend in India, we've never met, we've never even talked it's been strictly talking on email.
 

Susan Roane, author of the book How to Work a Room, believes that techno friends are no substitute for real human connection.

And this is me sounding like my mother, "Go out, you'll never meet anyone sitting at home." In this century you will meet everyone sitting at home, but it won't have the same value. You've got to put yourself in situations where there are other people or this is a very isolated world. The result of being isolated is it doesn't contribute to our health. The research shows people who live longer and live healthier have social connections.

Because of this isolation, more than ninety percent of the population consider themselves shy to some degree - more than ninety percent - so if that's you and you're going to be in a social situation, go early.

And the reason is it's easier to be in the room when other people come in than to walk into the room that seems already full of people. That one is probably the golden nugget. Don't go and make the grand entrance, shy people just don't do a grand entrance.