I'm jealous of your community. The people around here suck. What can I do to find better people?

  • Marian Call

    1) Become better people. I'm into very old-fashioned notions of self-improvement; improving temperament & empathetic skills as much as possible, and actually learning the social graces we don't naturally have. I sucked at small talk and smiling. I took a couple years and learned to do both passably. Best use of time ever. Coincidentally, I found better community once I was more confident and practiced at conversation.

    2) Go somewhere else. If the people who suck are toxic and dragging you down, don't be afraid to cut off contact for a time. If you can't move, find a new social circle built on something healthy for you, full of the kind of people you want to be with and be like. Go to where you see people with positive energy and hang out with them and do what they're doing. Note that communities built around negative energy (being anti-something or scorning or mocking this and that) will ultimately feel shallow. Communities that are hopeful and action-oriented or fun-oriented will feel better in the long run.

    3) Being in a community always always always means bearing with other people when they're getting on your nerves. Once you find a new community you like, over time those people will annoy you, and you will annoy them. Learn how to be gracious toward people (while having good boundaries). If you hop from community to community to community and find that people everywhere suck, 5 or 6 different groups of people, note that the common denominator there is you. (Coincidentally that's the only common denominator you can control and change.)

  • Marian Call

    smiles
    26 all-time