Social Norms

Today's Post is about not being Socially Awkward

I must say, today was a fairly solid day! When you go to your first class and find out it's been cancelled for tomorrow, that's a pretty good feeling. But when you go to each class after that and hear the same news?...

Well, that's just the best feeling in the world. Until you remember your Astronomy test tomorrow.

Dang it.

So today my mind got on the idea of social normality. I like to imagine that every human being has a little balancing scale in their heads. One side of the scale is book smarts, the other side of the scale is street smarts. If the book side of the scale is heavier, we get this:

If the street smarts side is heavier, we get these tools:

I've found all too often at BYU that many many students here lean more towards the former. Most of these students put my test scores to shame, they could take any class, anywhere, and completely own that class. But put them in a social situation and we get these awesome moments:

I am in no way discouraging studying, it's the whole reason I'm at college! And I'm no expert on how to live my life, so I'll leave it to the scriptures.

"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man."

Interesting. So you mean to tell me that Jesus Christ, the most perfect example, had to develop?? He had to learn and grow just like everyone else? Well, in that case, I probably better follow in His footsteps. I see 4 ways Christ developed. 

1. Wisdom:
• Alright bookworms, you got me. Christ hit the books (or scrolls I guess) just like the rest of us. Good for you. Actually, this shows all of us that we need to try and obtain as much education as possible; there is no capacity for learning.
2. Stature
• Stature? As in physically? Interesting! Looks like the Savior kept Himself in good physical shape. That's a pretty good example to us heading into this holiday season. (Sadly, I know I will be blatantly disregarding this in a couple of days)
3. Favor with God
• This one seems like a no brainer at first until you really think about it. In order for Christ to be the perfect example, he had to learn the Gospel like the rest of us! Personally, I think that it's really cool to think that Christ developed spiritually just like everyone else!
4. Favor with Man
• Favor with Man? As in....socially? The Savior developed social skills! Gaining knowledge and a lot of it is very important to make your way in the world. However, learning common sense and social etiquette is just as important. And if you're spending all of your days cooped up in your room buried nose deep in textbooks, you're killing your social skills like face to face communication, basic common courtesies, and knowing when something just isn't appropriate for a public setting. Sadly, I see this all too often at BYU and I can't help but feel bad for them. 

Anyways, now that I'm off my soap box, I wanted to take a minute to talk about Pledge Drives on TV.

I know we've all seen these before. They call us asking for substantial amounts of money to fund shows we don't really watch in exchange for measly "Thank You" gifts that we don't really want. All I remember about growing up is how I hated when these were on because it was interrupting "Arthur". Well as luck would have it, I got to help film the KBYU pledge drive tonight which gave me an opportunity to see these events behind the scenes. And guess what? 

I still see no point to them. 

That's all with regards to Pledge Drives. 

I don't really have much to say right now so I'll wrap up by saying that finding balance between intelligence and common sense is more important than most people know. Social skills are becoming a lost art in rising generations and I'm not really keen on having to put up with awkward people that never learned how to act civilly for the rest of my life. Please everyone who has an ear to hear, hear my plea: get off the computer and learn to be social.

"Hey Alex, what are you doing right now?"

AMS