Silence . Is it awkward? Not always, there are plenty of different kinds of silences. Some are comfortable, some are funny, some when they are confused, usually when someone is upset, some are disinterested, normally when someone is thinking and sometimes just plain awkward. Most of the time when someone is in a situation that they don't feel comfortable in or don't really know the people around them that well there is an awkward silence. This normally can't be helped. This happens because you don't know their interests, personal life or personality. There's nothing really to talk about and you have no idea what to say except for the basic, "what'd you do today?" or "the weathers pretty nice dontcha think?" and we all know those lead to dead ends. I have experienced many awkward silences in which i try to break by saying .. "well this is awkward." At first you get the occasional more awkward stares but sometimes if you're lucky it kind of breaks the ice and makes everyone feel more comfortable because they giggle. Sometimes it has the opposite effect in which the silence is even more awkward than it was when it started. Sometimes people talk just to fill the silence so that it isn't as awkward. This affects our ability as listeners because we won't always pay attention to what they have to say so we don't know whether people are just talking out of their ass or whether they have something to offer for the conversation. Maybe, in this society we don't know how to handle silence. With always having noise around us, or always being told what to do by teachers we don't know how to react when it's quiet and the teacher just sits there and stares at you instead of telling you to take out your books like your used to. Take this into consideration and think about what your going to do next time there's a silence.
Ahhh, awkward silences are really awkward, haha. You're right, sometimes it's best to just break the silence and risk more awkwardness.
ReplyDeletei think sometimes silence can be akward , especaily when you say something stupid. but i think you your right it doesnt need to be akward all the time
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am okay with silence. Awkward or not, it depends on the person if they choose to let it become awkward. Silence for me in nice. I would rather stay quiet than risk saying something stupid or making a fool out of myself. I normally just let others "break" the silence and then go from there. I think defining silence "awkward" is just all dependent on the people involved. If they make it awkward, then it is awkward. But if they accept it, then it is just more time to think about life.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a really good point about how there are many different types of silence and how it can be awkward sometimes. It's really only awkward if you make it awkward. Most of the time in society there is noise surronding ourselves so when it is silent we do have difficulty rising above the silence and creating a new topic to discuss mainly when the people around us are strangers. We must see the larger forces that shape us so we can understand each other.
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