Learning to be more Social : My Goal

Right now I am at what will most likely be the longest part of my process of becoming more socially experienced. I am learning to communicate with people who's interests are different from mine. For me this has always been a huge sticking point because, while I find the topics that most other people talk about interesting, I never have much to contribute to the conversation becuase I am more interested in scientific and technical things.

To put my problem in perspective, I'll use movies as an example. I love to watch all type of movies, and do so with great regularity. As a result of talking with friends and coworkers, however I have discovered that my movie watching habits differ in a subtle way from theirs. When they watch a movie, even once, they pay attention to details. They can repeat specific lines, and remember the story in great detail. I, on the other hand, can normally remember only wether I liked it or not, and sometimes a few specific details as to why. Many times I'll be asked if I remember a specific part of the movie, and I don't until hearing the plot repeated, after which it all comes back.

The point I am attempting to make is that because I don't reguard these details important to myself, I don't remember them. Because I don't remember them, I am not able to utilize them in conversation. This leads me to my current goal which is to start paying more attention to seemingly unimportant details that I may be able to work into social conversation.

Since movies are one thing that most people have in common, I am starting there. My favorite genre is comedy, so I intend to watch at least 1 comedy a day for the next week. While watching I will pay particular attention to the jokes and attempt to commit them to memory. If I have to I might even start writing things down in order to express upon my mind that this stuff is important to commit to memory. Not only have I chosen comedy because I suspect that doing so may reap other benefits.

I am hoping that committing details about comedies to memory will allow me to do more than just recite the jokes that I learn from the movies. I am not inept when it comes to making jokes, but this process is easiest for me when I have a wealth of information to draw on. Thus the information I learn from the movies should improve my creational skills to some extent. In addition, my delivery skills may also be enhanced.

In about a week, I will write another post detailing my experiences with this. I will describe the techniques I have used, the observations I have made, and the perceived effects that I have noticed in myself.