【推荐1】When looking to meet new people, try to be open to new experiences.    1    Here is something new you can experience and hopefully you will have some fun.

Volunteer. Volunteering can be a great way to help others while meeting new people.    2    

Take a class or join a club.    3    In those places, you will meet people with common interests. Websites such as Meetup. com can help you find local groups or start your own and connect with others who share similar interests.

    4    . Dog owners often stop and chat while their dogs play with each other. If dog ownership isn’t right for you, volunteer to walk dogs from a shelter or a local rescue group.

Unplug(拔掉插头). It’s difficult to meet new people in any social situation if you’re more interested in your phone than the people around you.    5    Making eye contact and exchanging small talk with strangers is great practice for making connections-and you never know where it may lead!

【推荐2】A sense of humor is something highly valued. A person who has a great sense of humor is often considered to be happy and socially confident. However, humor is a double-edged sword. Sometimes it can damage self-respect and annoy others.

People who use bonding humor tell jokes and generally lighten the mood. They're thought to be good at reducing the tension in uncomfortable situations. They often make fun of their common experiences, and sometimes they may even laugh off their own misfortunes. The basic message they deliver is: We're all alike, we find the same things funny, and we're all in this together.

Put-down humor, on the other hand, is an aggressive type of humor used to criticize others through teasing. When it's aimed against politicians, as it often is, it's extremely funny and mostly harmless. But in the real world, it may have a harmful effect. An example of such humor is telling friends an embarrassing story about another friend. When challenged about their teasing, the put-down jokers might claim that they are "just kidding," thus allowing themselves to avoid responsibility. This type of humor, though considered by some people to be socially acceptable, may hurt the feelings of the one being teased and thus have a bad effect on personal relationships.

Finally, in hate-me humor, the joker is the target of the joke for the amusement of others. This type of humor was used by comedians John Belushi and Chris Farley—both of whom suffered for their success in show business. A small amount of such humor is charming, but routinely offering oneself up to be embarrassed destroys one's self-esteem, and fosters depression and anxiety.

So it seems that being funny isn't necessarily an indicator of good social skills and well-being. In certain cases, it may actually have a negative effect on interpersonal relationships.

【推荐3】Many people spend more than four hours per day on WeChat, and it is redefining the word “friend.” Does friending someone on social media make him or her your friend in real life?

Robin Dunbar, a professor at Oxford University, found that only 15, of the 150 Facebook friends the average user has, could be counted as actual friends and only five as close friends. WeChat may show a similar pattern.

Those, with whom you attended a course together, applied for the same part-time job, went to a party and intended to cooperate but failed, take up most of your WeChat friends. In chat records, the only message may be a system notice, “You have accepted somebody’s friend request”. Sometimes when seeing some photos shared on “Moments”, you even need several minutes to think about when you became friends. Also, you may be disturbed by mass messages sent from your unfamiliar “friends”, including requests for voting for their children or friends, links from Pinduoduo.com (a Chinese e-commerce platform that allows users to buy items at lower prices if they purchase in groups) and cookie-cutter blessings in holidays.

You would have thought about deleting this type of “friends” and sort out your connections. But actually you did not do that as you were taught that social networking is valuable to one’s success. Besides, it would be really awkward if they found that you have unfriended them already. Then, you keep increasing your “friends” in social media and click “like” on some pictures that you are not really interested. But the fact is that deep emotional connections do not come with the increasing number of your friends in social media.

If the number of your friends reaches 150, maintaining these relationships can be tough to you, and sometimes even will make you anxious. According to Robin Dunbar, 150 is the limit of the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.

【推荐3】Back in March, when the COVID-19 virus had just started its deadly influence across the country and people were terrified about a lack of every daily necessity, Jonny Blue focused on one particularly urgent need. Blue, a 33-year-old doctor saw reports of people buying and storing toilet paper. He came up with a simple yet clever solution.

One Saturday morning, Blue took a piece of cardboard, wrote “Share Your Toilet Paper” on it in huge letters, and camped out on the street corner. “It just inspired me to remind people that if you have a lot of something, that probably means there are people who don’t have very much of it because you took it all,” Blue said. “So sharing it is probably a good thing to keep in mind.”

The response was immediate and positive, with motorists honking horns(鸣笛) in support. Drivers stopped to drop off spare rolls of toilet paper, and, just as quickly, Blue handed them out.

“This guy said he just ran out and was going to a bunch of stores and couldn’t find any,” Blue said as cars went by. “Somebody had given me some, so I gave it to him. He was excited. He was like, ‘Do you want me to pay you?’ I said, ‘No, man. Take it.’”

A moment later, a driver in a white pickup truck slowed down just enough to take out a roll to add to Blue’s collections.

“People are loving it,” Blue said. “They’re honking, smiling, laughing. It’s kind of a hard time right now. People want a sense of community.”