Loving relationships in real life are difficult enough but there are some people who are trying to build a loving relationship online and from a distance. For the purpose of this article we will deal with using apathy as the measurement for calculating how much love there is in a ‘normal’ real-life relationship off-line.

Firstly, lets clarify the meaning of apathy. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1964) definition is:

apathy; n. insensibility to suffering; passionless existence; indolence of mind, without feeling. Continue Reading »

Many people today have forgotten that social skills existed long before social book marking sites and other Internet social communities existed online. The dictionary (Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1964) has nearly a page listed dealing with the word “social” and derivatives of, but the meaning we are most concerned with in this article is the definition given to the word social:

“social:a.& n. Living in companies, gregarious, not fitted for or not practising solitary life, interdependent, co-operative, practising division of labour, existing only as member of compound organism, (man is a social animal; social bees, wasps, kinds having common nests etc. ~birds, building near each other in communities; ~plants, kinds that grow thickly together & monopolize ground they grow on)”

People have been social creatures since they first learnt the benefits of not clubbing each other to death.  Continue Reading »

There’s something odd about people when they get into their cars and hit the road on their way to or from somewhere. Particularly men at traffic lights. I think men feel themselves sufficiently isolated and alone and don’t seem to be socially aware of other occupants in the cars around them.

Cars, even fogged up cars in bad weather, still allow people to see out enough from their windows when they look around them at traffic lights, to see what others are doing. Most people, drivers and passengers, sit patiently and wait for the lights to change before moving off. However, some men take this opportunity to have a good old nose pick. I watched one fellow the other day, I thought he was trying to mine his nose.

This is a seriously gross, socially unacceptable, habit anywhere but in public it is a totally unacceptable practice.

When people are in their cars on the street, even when the vehicle is only moving slowly in traffic, people around them can still see in. Passengers have no where to look except out their windows at people in the cars around them and to be subjected to a “nose picker” is enough to make one want to throw up.

Car windows, unless they are highly tinted, still allow others to see inside a vehicle. Here in Australia, many cars have tinted windows all around to cut down on glare and to try to reflect some of the suns rays away from inside the vehicle. There is legislation covering the percentage of tinting every car can have because if it is too dark, then driver visibility out is reduced.

Even with slightly tinted windows, people can still see inside a vehicle, so to remain socially acceptable to those travelling around you, it is a good idea to be aware of what you are doing and what others can see you doing.

Nose picking is one seriously gross, unacceptable and definitely unsociable habit.

The other thing I see too frequently at traffic lights are “the spitters”. “The spitters” are those men who hawk up nasal congestion into a big gob of phlegm and spit it out onto the street. This is another gross habit that actually has ramifications far worse than just being a socially unacceptable practice.

One of the reasons why TB (Tuberculosis) has largely been eradicated from western society is because we stopped spitting on the street. These “spitters” are endangering everyone’s health and well-being through spitting and I for one find this more than socially unacceptable. No one has the right to endanger my health with their bad habits. I have enough of my own and don’t need theirs. My bad habits don’t endanger anyone’s life or make anyone around me feel nauseous and want to throw up.

So if you are a man who has unacceptable social habits when you next stop at traffic lights please remember reading this article. Our world and environment will thank you.

MEDIA RELEASE-Hervey Bay, Queensland Australia (January 27^th 2010) – “Could Courtesy Curb Car Crashes in Australia in 2010″? is a question being asked by many Queensland residents the day after Australia Day.

Australia Day was celebrated in style in Hervey Bay with Australian flags of all sizes waving gaily from vehicles as they went about their recreation.

However, the outpouring of National pride and gratitude was not observed in their road courtesies at the biggest shopping centre in Hervey Bay when one car pulled out in front of an oncoming vehicle with their indicator light flashing that they were about to turn into the shopping centre. The vehicle leaving the shopping centre couldn’t wait the few seconds for the vehicle to pull in before they pulled out.

One witness to the incident who didn’t want to be named, said “They can fly the Australian flag but pity they can’t have some Australian manners to match” which just about sums up why the road toll in Australia is climbing steadily with a disproportionate number of young males aged 17 to 25 represented in the annual road statistics.

The Advertiser/Sunday Mail reported 26^th January 2010 by adelaidenow.com.au that “another three male youths from Mt Compass – 17, 18 and 18 – were killed and a fourth, 17, from Hope Forest, sustained minor injuries when their car ploughed into a tree on Wood Cone Rd, about 600m from Victor Harbor Rd, just south of Mount Compass”

If this group of young drivers were put back into a class room and taught consideration for others and social courtesy before they qualified for their licence, could these mandatory lessons help to curb Australia’s rising road toll?

Lack of consideration for others and social courtesy and the “me first” syndrome of today can be observed in many facets of everyday life but when it gets combined with cars and testosterone it seems to be a deadly combination.

Young people are not the only ones afflicted with this “me first” syndrome as it appears to be passed down from the parents but when a young male full of testosterone, driving know-how, bravado and out to impress his mates practices the actions it puts everyone else on the road at risk. For some reason, some people seem to think it is their right to push ahead regardless of others and have no thought to the consequences of their actions.

Changing this ‘me first’ attitude and lack of social courtesy and inconsideration for others; could go a long way towards curbing our car crashes if we all showed and practised being better Australians by simply practising considerate and more socially acceptable behaviour on our roads.

Contact: Jan Smith

www.learninghowsite.com

16/222 Torquay Terrace

Torquay Qld. 4655

Ph: (07) 4128 2335

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Some people often say “”Hey”? today instead of “excuse me” or “pardon” or “I beg your pardon” when they haven’t heard or understood what it is that you have said. Is this a rude and discourteous response to someone’s conversation? How does it make you feel when someone replies to you with a straight or cranky look and they say “hey” abruptly.

If you are like many people, you may feel almost insulted but definitely disinclined to repeat in full what you have just said to elicit that response. It could make you feel rejected, hurt, angry and any number of other things. But one of the things it does do is to mark the person who responds to an unheard or misunderstood question with “hey” is that they are bad mannered individuals.

In a peer group of uneducated people hanging around a corner ’shooting the breeze’ it may be the accepted practice. This is a case of “birds of a feather, flocking together” so it may be acceptable to the group.

However, if you are in a job interview and one of the interviewers asks you a question that you haven’t heard properly or understood, and you respond with “hey?” then don’t expect to have a successful outcome to that interview simply because you have immediately shown that you have no respect for other people or their feelings and are highly unlikely to be a good team player. If you are going to be in a team, then you have to (a) be acceptable to the other team members and (b) have to be able to get along with the other team members.

If you are in a casual social situation and you turn to someone jokingly and say “hey, what’s that” with a smile on your face it could be construed as being playful but if you turn to someone and say “hey?” abruptly without a smile then you are most likely going to be thought of as being rude and or angry over something.

Spoken language and body language often mirror each other quite well in meaning when rude people say “hey”. Next time someone says it to you, remember to take note of their facial features when they do so and in particular their eyes. These will always give you the precise meaning of what they are feeling/thinking/meaning when they speak so rudely to you.

If a person is in a more formal social situation like a cocktail party or after-work drinks with colleagues and someone responds with “hey?” to something that you’ve said, take notice of how you feel at the time. Saying “hey” is rude in any educated social activity with colleagues and in a formal social setting like a cocktail party it is definitely a “No-No” if you want to be invited to the next social gathering.