Are you Unpopular?

PQ, don't you think that it's better that we just leave our childhoods behind?

no, i think its best that we remeber them so we can learn from them

I think I'm an acquired taste. It depends on where I am and with whom, as to whether I feel popular or not. As I've gotten older, I've become more of an observer and thinker and that puts some people off. But it attracts others.

I was popular as a child, always laughing and fooling around. Too rebellious and moody to be truly "popular" as a teen, and since college have settled into a comfortable niche of always managing to find the right (for me) number of people with whom I feel comfortable and can socialize. But I'm an enigma even to myself; sometimes I'm the life of the party, and others I just want to hibernate with a book, and I couldn't begin to tell you why, or which it will be on any given day.
(Just as an aside, as I write this I'm thinking I'm not popular enough on this forum for anyone to care but then I thought, "hey, you asked...)

aidan, dont say that, we all care!

I would think that the common denominator of
all very popular people, in institutions such as highschool, is that they are extroverts.

PQ - That's such a sweet thing for you to say - see you're kind, empathetic, sensitive to people's feelings- you'd be popular with me. By the way, I was half-kidding, but when you don't know people and they don't know you - you just never know what, if any, response to expect. And the truth of the matter is, I've found that I'm much better at making friends in real life than on the internet. I think I "translate" better three dimensionally - I smile and laugh a lot, I've been told I have a kind face, etc. I think that would be an interesting study to do - how people are perceived on the internet versus in their "real" three-dimensional life.

Shepaints - Yeah, I agree. When I'm in my extroverted mode, I definitely feel more "popular".

This is an odd thread: it has the potential to go right into the very center of what makes individuals individuals.

Yes, and why certain types of individuals are able to function more successfully, in our particular society and in its intstitutions, than are others. I find it interesting too.

People don't say what they really mean nearly enough.

Shepaints: I know what your saying, but I think its more likely to be confidence. I can be a real extrovert around people less confident than me, and when I feel comfortable I am very loud, but not around people more popular than me for some reason. Some popular people arent necissarilly extroverts, they can be quite quiet, but they have confidence and that's what makes them popular.

true enough, Pentacle Queen....charisma doesn't
hurt either.

Jason

Sorry I missed this thread until just now.


I think I'm pretty popular.

People seem to want me at parties or get-togethers. I mingle...work the crowd...an in general, I'm a life-of-the-party type of guy.

I almost always have a smile on my face....and I can find a silver lining in the darkest of clouds.

I seldom piss in anyone's cheerios, Jason...but I certainly am not known for suffering fools lightly.

I say what I mean...and I mean what I say. I find it effective to speak plainly....and for the most part, I do. I'm not a good person to ask if a haircut looks good...unless you really want to know what the haircut looks like in my estimation.


We have a New York meet coming up this week...and I'll let the new people I meet speak to this after the meet. Maybe I'll be surprised.

In any case, I don't think that if I lost the popularity...that would necessarily mean that I'd be unpopular. Perhaps that "a-popular" phrase you used would be appropriate.

But I don't intend to become any less popular.

At someone's expense as you can see. Just kidding. I went to the vault.

Unpopular
Popular is defined as "widely liked or appreciated" by the american hertiage dictonary. The term being unpopular was coined when describing high school and your "status". The unpopular kids were the ones less appercaited by thier classmates becuase they either didnt have the right clothes or some other bullshit superfical thing that every high schooler wastes his or her time thinking about. If you think about it, unpopularity is just as bad as popularity. Both groups are trying to fit in anyway they can. One just tries harder and winds up succedding. Unpopularity just means that you do not fit in well with a certain group, many "unpopular" kids dont just fit into one catagory, they have many different talents, intersts or even ideas, so they as a way to make the social latter at school make sense they placed into the unpopular catagory. I am describing unpopularity in relations to high school, this is the best way that i can understand it and explain how i feel,even though it is very generic. There is not much that you can do about being unpopular. One can always try to do what the popular kids are doing and see if they except them, but honestly why bother. Doing that just shows weakness and how one is not able to be comfotable with him or her self, You become a follower and that is not independence. Besides, who decides whos popular or not? How do u get to that popularity? Are you just born being able to adapt well to differnet atmospheres and thats why you are able to be apart of the popular crowd. Is that why unpopular kids cant seem to be popular, there we just not born with that? To me, Unpopularity was really brought about by bad high school movies that made people (including myself) think of high school as this place were what you wear matters the most and being nominated from prom king and queen is the biggest part of becoming a senior. In acutallity , its all just pointless and its another phase that we all go through and when we look back at our high school year books well see how childess we all were and how much time we wasted on the mere fact that we wanted to become popular. Just because the unpopulars ones were not "widely liked" does not mean that they were not apprecaited, it just means that someone thought they werent as imporant as someone else, thats one persons opinion, not the entire nations. Being unpopular and popular, those titles drop once you graduate from high school. I have never heard and adult saying that so and so is unpopular, or even college students. High school is the pinicale of being superfical, theres nothing you can do about it accept wait out the four year and realize that there is so much more to care about. Plus i bet you that those people who were so popular back in high school and seemed like the tighest group of friends even dont even talk to each other 10 years down the road.

Climbingway - I think you raise some interesting points.
1) are some people born more adaptable?
2) the decision involved with popularity that some people are less important than others.
3) and though I agree that highschool is the absolute pinnacle of life's popularity contest, the fact is that it continues well into adulthood - it's just not as openly expressed.

I'm really interested in discussing the first two though. Welcome to A2K. (I'm just following along here, doing what I've seen older, more popular members doing - being welcoming and all that...(a little joke - no smiles to use in the quick reply box).

I

As climbingway stated in their entry, popularity is defined in several different ways. It can mean muliple things to one person.

First of all, there are popular people in many areas, are you specifically refering to in highschool? or just in general?

I think in any situation, to be popular you must have certain traits.

I have found that usually somebody that is "popular" is outgoing. Although i dont think that you have to be likeable. Some people just have that carisma about them that gives off a certain feeling when you are around them that they are "cool" and it almost feels as if they are superior to you. One trait i think all popular people have is confedince.

Is being popular the same as being famous, but not as widely known?

Are you unpopular?


lol why else would you be posting on this thread. Jk

It seems then, Frank, that you and I are a lot a like. But often in threads I get heavily mistaken as saying what I am not. I saw recently a thread where a poster thought I was acting as a know it all. This is far from me - and I think that tone is to fault here. But here is my question to you sir.

Are you percieved differently on this board than you are in real life? Is that common for you?

I often think people percieve me as very different than what I think I am.

Is this the case for you as well.

TTF

p.s. Am I one of those fools that suffer by you?

Who the F cares? This is cyberspace or we talking reallife?

I think the drawback of cyberspace is the fact that people do not equate the two with how to treat people.

People say a whole bunch of things in cyberspace that they don't have the balls to say in real life.

That drives me nuts.

TTF