Nothing brings people together quite like excluding others. We just love to point and laugh, to bitch, and to shun. It's just good times! The thing is though, with people becoming more self-aware all the time, the standard of what makes a person weird has dropped quite a bit so that if you slip up, you can easily be labelled the neighbourhood freakazoid. If fact, most of us will probably slip up in at least one of these areas at some point, which doesn't mean you really are a freak, just that there are people out there who think you are. These are the 7 things that make you seem weird:
1) Lack of eye contact.
It's a simple thing, but many people are unwilling to maintain eye contact with others for very long. This makes you appear untrustworthy, shifty, or shy: all indicators of potential weirdness. It's a characteristic of introverts; eye contact has a stimulating effect on the mind, but because introverts already have a high rate of mental arousal, eye contact can have an overstimulating or overwhelming effect. Introverts draw their gaze away like you'd pull your hand from an unexpected heat. Overcome this problem by simply powering through this reflex, allow yourself to maintain eye contact for an extra few seconds while talking, you'll soon discover that it isn't overwhelming at all.
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2) Personal space.
Whatever you do, respect people's personal space. The average proximity that people are comfortable with ranges from eighteen inches to about four feet, if you're more comfortable with the person, you don't mind them coming within the nearest regions of your personal space, while everybody else needs to back the fuck up. Don't be a space invader, stay about 4 feet away from those folk who aren't close enough to be called friends.
3) Weird sense of humour.
Always know your audience. You might be the most sarcastic fucker on the face of the planet, but if you're in a room of people who speak English as a second language, for example, that humour might just go straight over their heads. Keep the zingers in check until you actually know what these people find funny.
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4) Vocal religious beliefs.
If there's one thing people love to hate, it's a fanatic. And by fanatic, I mean anyone who is in any way vocal about their religious beliefs. Sure, sometimes during the course of conversation the subject will crop up naturally and that's perfectly normal. What isn't normal is trying to shoehorn God into as many situations as possible. Trust us when we say that nobody wants to hear your sermons.
5) Being really quiet.
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If you're inordinately quiet, you're essentially labelled weird by default. This is mainly because if people don't have a great insight into someone, it's hard to glean information about a person who doesn't converse very often and they'll be labelled as weird. Like the eye contact thing, it sends a signal that is essentially off-putting because it may be mistaken for shyness. Easily overcome this barrier by making a concerted effort to chime in a bit more to maintain a presence.
6) Being hyper or loud.
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Then there's the other side of the spectrum, where a person just won't shut the fuck up. If you're super enthusiastic and you just can't control the volume of your own voice box, you will leave yourself open to a whole lot of derision behind your back. Remember that normality is where you just average everything out, if you're extreme in any areas of your life, you're either an outlier or a freak of nature. To tackle this one just... just calm your tits, all right?
7) Just being a creep.
Ah yes, a true weirdo. It's a fact that people love to talk about sex, but there are times and places for these things. Some do not seem to understand this logic. These are the kind of people who do not possess any kind of self-awareness, social tact, or an understanding of the word "subtlety." They will discuss lewd sex acts at the most inappropriate moments and proposition people in the most tragic and downright creepiest ways possible. The only person who wants to associate with a creep is another creep.
