SoCiaL iSsUe -mOrE tHaN juSt 2 WorDs
“Social Issue/s” -More than just 2 words
Scenario 1: When you meet someone in the lift whom you know is staying in the same block as you but have never exchanged words before, do you
A. Act busy by rummaging through your bag for keys and what’s not to avoid eye contact.
B. Start air-talking into your mobile to halt any possible conversation.
C. Plaster a smile on your face and exchange a couple of casual banter with him/her.
D. Immediate adoption of an ‘I’m anti-social’ expression written all over your face and prays hard the lift reaches your floor pronto.
Scenario 2: You are on your way home from work. Half dead and can’t wait to pop in for a warm shower when you see a fellow neighbour treading towards the same lift landing as you. Do you
A. Decide to take the other lift that is further away from your unit.
B. Make a 360 degrees turn to stall for time.
C. Walk up and board the lift with your neighbour. He/she won’t eat me up what!
D. Walk to your mailbox, open it in slow motion and taking your own sweet time to sieve through the junk mail to allow ample time for the lift to bring your neighbour up first.
Scenario 3: Your neighbour knocks on your door. You have no idea what he/she wants from you. Do you
A. Pretend no one’s home and turn off all audio equipment at lightning speed.
B. Open the door and talk to him/her through the barely visible space.
C. Open the door wide and see what he/she has to say.
D. Open the door wide and put on a Freddy Kruger mask in a bid to scare him/her away and never to knock on your door again forever.
Sc
enario 4: You have lived in this block of flat for over 20 years. Have youA. Spoken to at least one of your neighbours who share the same common corridor as you?
B. Spoken to most of your neighbours or at least smiled at those who share the same common corridor as you?
C. Been chummy with almost all the people staying in your block with the regular ‘Auntie’ and ‘Uncle’ greetings.
D. Never spoke or smiled at anyone in your block before. They never spoke or smiled to you first, so why should you?
Evaluation:
If most of your answers are
A: You are quiet neighbour likened to a harmless brown mouse. You view your neighbours like the stray cats in your neighbourhood. Minimal contact is preferred.
B: You are a cautious neighbour who thinks your neighbours are like the domestic lizards sticking to the ceiling in your flat. They can be quite a pest at times with all the inconsiderate droppings everywhere but are also useful at times for eating up the bloodsuckers.
C: You are the friendly neighbour who views all living things who walk on 2 legs as friends. You go all the way out to make them happy just like an affectionate puppy with a waggy tail.
D: Who in the world invent neighbours?! If you had your way, 
you would crush them all like cockroaches!
you would crush them all like cockroaches!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the day and age where all of us mere mortals who earn just enough to feed our shopping/gadget addictions, 3 warm (high in cholesterol and fatty!) meals, and the sky high property prices, are sheltered from the elements of the weather in our HDB flats (which are not exactly very cheap too).
The upside?
They are a tad cheaper than landed residences or condos.
The downside?
You have to tolerate inconsiderate neighbours living upstairs who drag their furniture (or dead bodies!) on a daily basis, irritating kiddos who play lift pranks by making your lift stop at every level when you are in a hurry or the hum sump ah peks loitering around and visually molesting you every time you run errands in your tee and shorts to the nearby provision shops.
Yes. Those are your neighbours. The good, the bad and the ugly all living in the same block, sharing the same corridor, the same lift, the same void deck and staircases. I can almost see you nodding your head vigorously and rolling at your eyes at some not very pleasant run-ins you had with them.
Is it for these same reasons that our daily interaction with them is kept to an almost inexistent level? Nowadays, almost all the door to each unit is kept closed. Each lift encounter is silent and we feigned ignorance when meet them or by pass them along the way to the market.
No longer do we feed each other with our home cooked specialties, invite one another to our flats for chats, play with other kiddos or even twitch a muscle to smile. We actually bother to frown instead which actually uses more muscles to muster compared to a smile.
So does that mean we have lost our skills to socialise?
In my opinion, YES!
Be it at our ‘friendly’ neighbourhood or the workplace or academic institutions. We only socialise because we have to and not because we want to. We socialise with our colleagues because we need their help when it comes to work. We socialise in school for the same reasons to gain help in school work and projects. No one wants to be the loner with no friends. In fact, we are all ‘socialising’ to ‘use one another’.
Am not being a pessimist and I do believe the friends I have know (and you too) for over 10 years are real true ones whom I befriended because I like them with no strings attached.
But sad to say, our ‘true-blue with no maliciousness included’ social skills take a sharp dip as we get older.
It is now a social issue that we no longer socialise or only socialise on a superficial manner.
Just ask yourself, how many of the friends you befriended in your primary, secondary, JC, Poly or Uni are still in frequent contact since you guys have parted ways? How many ex-colleagues do you still chat on msn or meet-up to rant at the ups and downs of working life? How many neighbours do you actually talk for more than 10 minutes a day for more than 3 days a week?
Not many, I bet.
Social issue = the warped way we (no longer) socialise
Can this ever be tackled?
A: Throw away all inhabitations and start talking to all your neighbours, colleagues, ex colleagues and long-lost friends like you known them for years.
B: Brainwash yourself that everyone is harmless with no ulterior motives.
C: Be in denial that there is no such problem or nonsense.
D: I don’t know.
Frankly, I chose option D. No amount of interference from higher authorities, corrective punishments or fines can rectify this. Matters concerning the greedy, lusty, fickle and selfish man is the most difficult to uproot.
What’s your take?
In the day and age where all of us mere mortals who earn just enough to feed our shopping/gadget addictions, 3 warm (high in cholesterol and fatty!) meals, and the sky high property prices, are sheltered from the elements of the weather in our HDB flats (which are not exactly very cheap too).
The upside?
They are a tad cheaper than landed residences or condos.
The downside?
You have to tolerate inconsiderate neighbours living upstairs who drag their furniture (or dead bodies!) on a daily basis, irritating kiddos who play lift pranks by making your lift stop at every level when you are in a hurry or the hum sump ah peks loitering around and visually molesting you every time you run errands in your tee and shorts to the nearby provision shops.
Yes. Those are your neighbours. The good, the bad and the ugly all living in the same block, sharing the same corridor, the same lift, the same void deck and staircases. I can almost see you nodding your head vigorously and rolling at your eyes at some not very pleasant run-ins you had with them.
Is it for these same reasons that our daily interaction with them is kept to an almost inexistent level? Nowadays, almost all the door to each unit is kept closed. Each lift encounter is silent and we feigned ignorance when meet them or by pass them along the way to the market.
No longer do we feed each other with our home cooked specialties, invite one another to our flats for chats, play with other kiddos or even twitch a muscle to smile. We actually bother to frown instead which actually uses more muscles to muster compared to a smile.
So does that mean we have lost our skills to socialise?
In my opinion, YES!
Be it at our ‘friendly’ neighbourhood or the workplace or academic institutions. We only socialise because we have to and not because we want to. We socialise with our colleagues because we need their help when it comes to work. We socialise in school for the same reasons to gain help in school work and projects. No one wants to be the loner with no friends. In fact, we are all ‘socialising’ to ‘use one another’.
Am not being a pessimist and I do believe the friends I have know (and you too) for over 10 years are real true ones whom I befriended because I like them with no strings attached.
But sad to say, our ‘true-blue with no maliciousness included’ social skills take a sharp dip as we get older.
It is now a social issue that we no longer socialise or only socialise on a superficial manner.
Just ask yourself, how many of the friends you befriended in your primary, secondary, JC, Poly or Uni are still in frequent contact since you guys have parted ways? How many ex-colleagues do you still chat on msn or meet-up to rant at the ups and downs of working life? How many neighbours do you actually talk for more than 10 minutes a day for more than 3 days a week?
Not many, I bet.
Social issue = the warped way we (no longer) socialise
Can this ever be tackled?
A: Throw away all inhabitations and start talking to all your neighbours, colleagues, ex colleagues and long-lost friends like you known them for years.
B: Brainwash yourself that everyone is harmless with no ulterior motives.
C: Be in denial that there is no such problem or nonsense.
D: I don’t know.
Frankly, I chose option D. No amount of interference from higher authorities, corrective punishments or fines can rectify this. Matters concerning the greedy, lusty, fickle and selfish man is the most difficult to uproot.
What’s your take?
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posted by aLL tHiNgS pReTtY @ 2:13 PM
