How good are your social skills?

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I make up for my lack of social skills by always being gracious and polite, and maintaining the appearance of having a positive outlook on things (even if I have to fake it). Before I came up with this strategy, I always failed to fit in at work, and it did cause problems in the workplace. Now, I get a rep of being a nice guy... a little eccentric, a bit quiet, but still a nice guy nonetheless. I even recently had a supervisor tell me that my positive attitude is contagious. So I guess that's enough to counterbalance the fact that when it comes to social behaviour I have no idea what I am doing.

My social skills are decent, but they vary due to the situation. It's hard for me to maintain relationships because I don't initiate conversations alot. I often go months without speaking to the couple of friends I have. It's hard for me to distinguish between my enemies and potential friends too. Therefore, most of the time I don't bother with new friendships and I don't feel like I am missing much either.

When I'm alone, I'm not obsessing over a particular person..

This allows me to put much more thought into social situations, in fact they've become quite easy lately.

However I still can't last more than an hour or two without generally having to escape.

Humour is definately a good way to work it, I play with words, and use my knowledge and cynicism to make people laugh.

Also music and science are two topics that can offer a lot of things to say, though you wouldn't think it.

Granted in every conversation I still say the wrong things, but I usually don't know when I have so it doesn't really matter, if I can make some people laugh, if I can connect with someone in some way, share some information, its fine.

I do think that I'm great with small talk and talking to people in the workplace and things like that. I also try to be careful of what I say; a lot of times I think about whether or not I plan to say is OK to say in a certain situation. I am fairly good at keeping friends, I think, but college makes it very hard.

As for just coming up to people and talking, doing well at parties, just going out and meeting people...I stink, I must say. At my school, for some reason, this isn't a very good thing to be, and so I don't have a lot of friends, but I do have lots of acquaintances (or, people whom I talk to from time to time, but am not really intimate with). A lot of people here are way too social compared to me. I know this seems silly to ask here, but is it a bad thing that I'm not like that?

With guys I have great social skills. With girls? Well, less so.

Hmmn....

With musicians, generally awesome.

With most girls, very well, to a certain point.

With most guys, find almost nothing to talk about..

I do great once i've know the person for a while. If I know someone for more then
a week or so, i've do pretty well. The first time talk is always the ''tuffest'' for me.

Hmm...

Sometimes I think my social skills are getting all right. Then something always happens to change my mind. So I try my best not to give a damn instead.

my social skills suck

I must say I am similar, though I wouldn't say I am "great" with guys. I can carry on a normal, everyday conversation no problem (about what we did today, the weather, what we will do on our next vacations, etc.). However, people sometimes say that I don't have the timing of conversation down (I cut others off when they are not done speaking sometimes, but nit's not a constant thing), and I also can't pick up body language and facial cues well. All in all, since my friends are nice people, they can still put up with being around me just fine.

On the other hand, I don't know how to approach girls. I don't want to come across as too forward, but yet I also want to convey that I want to be more than friends with them. It is a stereotype that guys mistake a girl smiling at them to be nice for attraction, and for me differentiating the two is even more hopeless. With guys we know we're not trying to convey attraction and so picking up emotional subtleties is not crucial.

With guys I have reasonable social skills. With most girls I have social skills that are slightly less developed than with guys. Nonetheless, both are at a sufficient level that I can at least attract friends, if not consciously make friends. With anyone I'm interested in, just consider me a deer in the headlights, and then a splatter on the side of the road.

Observing people's no big deal. Figuring out most people's intentions and feelings, same thing nowadays. The second I'm interested for more than friendship, you might as well blind and gag me. No, really, that wouldn't change my level of impairment very much at all.

Terrible. Probably because I do not care for people. I am also one of the most confrontational people you would ever meet. I do not need friends. I am my own friend. "Friends" just sort of get in the way for me and no one is ever intrested in the same things I am to the degre I am.

I lack eye contact. I almost fear looking into peoples eyes, especially where they are talking about me, or punishing me.
I can't carry on a conversation, or end one.
I am great at making presentations though.

They are ok sometimes, but most of the time they are pretty sh!tty. I usually just don't say anything or talk to anyone unless I feel that I know people well enough to have a conversation(which is tough because few people fit that description). I am getting better though, I think I say less distrubing/innapropriate things than I used to.

I think they're ok, but definitely not perfect or even average. Let's just say I don't use social skills much.

I am very quiet when i am around people I am not comfortable with. and with the ones I am comfortable with. I say dumb stuff all the time.

Email and IM have become my favorite way of talking to friends. but it doesnt help me develop proper skills for real life. Typing skills maybe, communication and behavior skills..no.

my social skills are not good. which is why i avoid being social as much as i can. including family stuff. i just go to my room when people are over. when i am at a friends i just ask to go home when i feel uncomfortable around them or there's too much stimilation.
I dont want to be rude and say, I dont want to be here, but sometimes there's too much going on that it becomes confusing. and overwhelming. so then I just nicely say. I think it's time for me to go or can you give me a ride home.