Aggressively Awesome? Social Behavior Failure!
I spend a little time each day seeking out and interacting with possible new connections. It’s something I endeavor to do with intent and purpose, hoping to make meaningful, mutually beneficial connections. On this particular day I was flexing my connection muscles on Twitter. And I was outgunned.
This paragon of powerful and awesome is apparently:
- a brainiac of epic proportions
- the best writer EVAH
- the strongest woman at the gym, at ANY gym
- a business genius
- a marketing maven
- a techie temptress
- tipping the emotional intelligence scale
- and does all of this in the small space that makes up her Twitter bio
Wowsers! I should, apparently, be impressed. However, I’m not. Why? Because this kind of bio screams of an aggressive attempt to alert us to a superhero presence. Folks, I love my superhero movies. They’re my go-to when I’m working on the couch with the laptop. I can spend an entire working weekend with the likes of Marvel and Justice League heroes and heroines. Yet, despite this great love for the all powerful doers of good and battlers of evil, I know that superheroes are imaginary. This is, to me, a social behavior failure of near epic proportions. Why? Read on.
In reality, where kryptonite and gamma rays aren’t factors, we’re all human. We sometimes wake up grumpy, wanting to bury our head under the pillow (this is me when the cats or husband spend the night aggressively sawing logs). Some days we spill our coffee down our shirts and have to change, sometimes twice. We have bad hair days, get lipstick on our teeth, drive too fast or too slow, break a shoelace, piss off a friend or colleague. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Sometimes we make the wrong call on a post or share. Sometimes we forget to say thank you within an hour. Sometimes, being quite honest, we’re just FAR from perfect.
The people I look up to, the people who keep me going when I’m feeling down are the kinds of people that have learned from foibles and mistakes in their human pasts and have chosen to engage in real and responsible social behavior. They don’t profess to be experts, gurus, mavens or ninjas in an industry that’s as prone to change as Cher at a gig on the Vegas strip. They prefer to engage in conversation, with plenty of getting to know you candor, rather than creating and force feeding me a laundry list of their awesome attributes.
As for the paragon of virtue described above? I chose not to connect with her. Maybe I’m just not awesome enough? Maybe it all boils down to me being insecure or even scared. But I’m just not really up to connect with someone who probably thinks she poops pink peonies! How’s that for some alliteration?!?!
What kinds of social behavior set your teeth on edge? Please do share in the comments!
