Being Respectful of Others

  This type of behavior typically manifests in individuals who complain constantly about being bored yet, for some reason, remain lethargic when someone tries talking with them.  In a way, they push people away with their boredom, as if trying to create their own bored sphere to justify their boredom.  They typically answer questions with statement that kill a conversation, preventing any exchange from ever developing and then, they wonder why people get tired of talking to them. Everyone can chose to be interesting and hold a decent conversation.  It is not rocket science.  You ask a question, the person responds and asks you, you answer and give something substantial for the other person to ask a question.  A conversation is an exchange of ideas and the sharing of feelings.  If you can't bother being a little bit interesting, then why bother talking to anyone at all?  A conversation should not be like pulling teeth out or a ...

  This type of behavior occurs when one person seems to just be answering emails or talking to you out of a common sense politeness.  They hardly ever ask any questions and respond ever so often, not with passion or purpose, but simply because they might consider it rude if they don't.  In these kind of relationships, the person feels like they are constantly running after the Apathetic Responder (AP), trying to spark their interest because they think that the AP could be an interesting person.  After all, they share many of the same interests and they seem like a decent individual. Unfortunately, that is not how life works.  If people are interested in being your friend, then they do not need the prompting of time to write/answer to you.  Quite the contrary, they want to respond, get to know you better and share experiences with you.  This is the natural behavior of someone who interested. When a person takes 2-3 days to respond to...

 This type of behavior usually manifests when a person turns to a friend in seeking relationship advice.  The Trusting Fool discusses the situation and talks about her feelings and fears.  The "friend" listens, but already has a judgment about the situation because she is biased.  At the end of the exposition, the friend provides some insight and comes to a rigid conclusion.   In a moment of trust and pure stupidity, the Trusting Fool actually becomes convinced of the friend's insight without questioning it.  In essence, they adopt the position and conclusion of the friend without any critical thinking or further study.  This is just plain stupid. First, every single person is subjective and biased.  There is no such thing as an objective friend.  They can be more objective than you, but they are not fool proof.  Second, everyone needs to make up their own mind.  A good friend is there to explore various options and, p...

 These types of behaviors usually manifest after a spat with a friend or partner.  The other person either acknowledges a mistake they made and apologizes or does not believe their behavior was out of line in the first place.  In response to this, the Unforgiving Vindicator feels hurt, but rather than just saying that they feel hurt and moving on, they cannot seem to let go of the wound inflicted by the other person and it begins to fester, poisoning the relationship.  Although I have seen this type of behavior in men, it usually manifests in women who have been hurt/disappointed by a boyfriend or friend.  What usually happens is that the person tends to be aggravated by something they perceive as a slight and then, they just focus on it.  This prevents any further good the other person may do.  For example, a guy forgets his girlfriend's birthday, so the girl is angry (and rightfully so).  However, after the guy takes her to the res...

  This type of behavior is usually associated with people who claim to be willing to compromise and be fair, but in the end, they cannot abide by the terms of the compromise they forged.  This is because they refuse to see that there is anything wrong with their behavior and, instead, are only focused on how they want the other person to change.  A compromise typically involves two people who dislike something about the other person or a behavior they consider harmful to the relationship.  In a true compromise, both people agree to give up something or change their behavior in exchange for their partner changing something. Unfortunately, the Hypocritical Compromiser was never interested in their personal change.  They are satisfied with who they are as an individual and don't believe that they need to change the behavior that bothers the other person.  Although the fact that they do not wish to change is not problematic in itself, the tru...

 Although this can apply to both guys and girls, it usually applies to guys.  This type of behavior involves guys being horny and switching their brains off or thinking with the wrong brain.  During this lapse in judgment, they decide to write to complete strangers of the opposite sex and ask for nude naughty pictures of them.  Beyond the guy making a complete fool of himself for having set himself up for a outright denial of his request, he has also marred the reputation of every other guy out there who is just trying to meet nice people.  It makes girls skeptical of guys online and of online dating. The reason these requests are stupid is as follows.  If you don't know the girl, only sluts or exhibitionists will give out their naked pictures to you.  This means that they are in all likelihood doing the same thing to any other guy who asks, and we all know there are quite a few of them.  A girl who readily distributes sexually expli...

 This type of behavior usually arises during conversations, when the One Worder simply begins to answer questions or statements with one word, such as "yeah, no, yes, ok, cool".  Such platitudes are not conducive to a conversation and make the other person feel like the One Worder is either not paying attention or not interested in the conversation.    A dialogue takes the commitment of 2 people discussing a topic or idea.  If one person isn't really involved, then you basically have a monologue.  I know that some people do not mind this type of behavior, but personally, I find it gets old very quickly.  I love to talk and good conversations can make my day.  However, I don't need someone else to talk to if the only responses I get are going to be one word statements or interjections.  I might as well talk to myself at that point.  People have very rich lives so you can never really know everything about someone.  Thi...

  In our contemporary society, people receive messages in a few seconds, whether on the phone or on the computer. However, for some strange reason, some people you consider friends just don't answer. You take your time to write to them and yet, hours turn into days and still no response. At first, you think that the people are just away from their computer or busy. Then, you see the facebook pic where they are out having fun or complaining that they are board and you are like: "WTF dude". Yes, when I see you online or see you have any activity and you do not answer my message, I usually give you the benefit of the doubt even though I am peeved. I try to think that, somehow, despite the boredom, you might have missed the message, even though I am hurt you would even think I wouldn't answer. So I try again to get the conversation started by sending another message. When the conversation falls apart again for the same reason (and there was not ap...

  This type of behavior is typically practiced by people who see the world in black and white, good and bad, where they are always a good person.   Anyone following a different train of thought or whom they judge to be inferior is bad yet, despite this narrow conception of the world, they promote themselves as being open minded and tolerant.  This is very close to hypocrisy, where it not for their firm belief in morals and values that steadily expand to encompass their actions.  These are the people who tell others to not do something because it is immoral but then do it themselves and try to justify it. These people also think of themselves as good people regardless of their actions because their logic goes as follows: I am a good person, ipso facto, my actions are good. No!. When a guy leaves his wife when she has cancer, he is a bastard. When a girl leaves her boyfriend the day he becomes unemployed, she is a bitch. Justifications about how ...

  When a person is religious, that is their choice. Each person is entitled to their own beliefs, which means that others have the right to believe or not believe in the same thing. What is annoying about the Religious Zealot is not that he believes, but that he projects his own beliefs onto others.  They feel that just because one does not share their religious beliefs, they are entitled to judge and berate the other person for having made "sinful" choices and being an uncultivated heathen who needs to be saved.   This is a wrong perspective to have.  Having different beliefs does not make a person a heathen to be placed on the stake, just different.  This is specifically what defines us as human beings and makes the human species strong.  For the same reason, that a person believes in abortion or gay rights does not make them an affront to God and human kind. The path to happiness is a state of mind and committing acts of aggressi...

  The people guilty of this type of behavior typically use their phones to talk with people on Yahoo Messenger, Skype or Facebook.  These people are usually busy talking to people, sometimes multiple people, but are doing something else in the process, which means that their response time falls between too quick to be simple emailing and too slow to be a real conversation.  This means that, frequently, the other person spends a considerable amount of time waiting for a response to their message because the first 2-3 answers came in 30 seconds but the current answer has not arrived for 20 min. The reason this is annoying is because it basically involves one person acting in such a way that they are telling the other person: "I don't value your time".   These people are constantly distracted and they answer once or twice every 10-20 min, presuming they haven't actually forgotten that they are talking to someone. WTF.  Now, before plaudits...

  This type of behavior usually materializes when the Abrasive Person (AP) makes snark remarks or comments that are solely made for the purpose of putting down the other person.  The comments make the person who expressed them feel better about themselves but make the other person feel belittled and insulted, not only because the comments are insensitive, but because they are surprised by the aggressiveness with which the comments were made.  In other words, the AP is openly aggressive and berating.  The ultimate result of this type of behavior is for communication to break down between the two people and the person who was belittled to walk away.  Although this behavior may provide immediate relief to the AP, over the long term, it drives people away and isolates them.  Anyone can have a bad day. However, when your friends begin to feel like they have to constantly tip-toe around you because one false movement and you are going to fly off ...

 Being a good friends involves recognizing that everyone comes from a different place and has a different story.  They bring vast amounts of experience and wisdom with them, regardless of whether they were born into money or poverty or even whether they were fortunate enough to receive a good education. The world is not fair and people are not all afforded the same opportunities in life.  Luck is not evenly distributed and sometimes, the people who deserve the best often have to suffer the most. The beauty of life is that, regardless of a person's horizon, we can learn from them and grow to appreciate what they have to offer.  Doing so helps us grow and become better people as we strive to share our experiences.  Respecting the differences of others is at the heart of understanding and communicating, whether it be a stranger or our self.