how to deal with awkward silence

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: how to deal with awkward silence 🤐 

1) leave.

JOKING. don’t do that, it’s rude. if you want to leave, have a decent excuse at least. 😭 

with meeting a lot of people comes countless encounters where the conversation just doesn’t flow easily, and that’s completely fine. now, you just have to deal with the awkward silence that inevitably follows. 

sometimes you realize mid-conversation that this person is just not a good human. sometimes you pick up weird vibes. sometimes you just run out of questions to ask. sometimes you’re simply too socially exhausted.

that’s all fine! you don’t have to continue a conversation indefinitely. let go of the people-pleaser mentality. 🌬️ 

when i come face-to-face with awkward silence i have a few strategies i defer to.

in environments with a lot of new people it’s good to have a mental timer for each conversation: give time (maybe 5 mins?) to introduce yourselves, go off of one conversation point and then wrap it up with a “it was great meeting you, i’ll catch you later,” if the vibes aren’t resonating. 🏃 even if you do really click with someone in such a setting, it’s still good to strike up conversations with other people instead of sticking to one person for the entire event.

it’s hard to run out of questions to ask, but it’s definitely tiring to be the only one asking them. sometimes it’s actually fine to let the awkward silence fester if you realize you’ve been carrying the conversation. let the other person take initiative and don’t feel overly bothered by the silence. 😶 

if you’re the one that struggles with forming questions, it’s good to have a few prepared beforehand that you fall back on. i like to ask about hottest takes on food or travel dreams to get conversation flowing because i have stories i can ramble about for each topic if needed.

one skill i’ve been able to hone since moving to the bay is sussing out when to let conversations go. not everyone is a match, even if you really want them to be. :)

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