People do not love or appreciate themselves (or others…). They do not have self confidence and the ability to deal with each other in a truly social way. One way I can justify this is in what I call “The difficulty of hello.”
I love to meet people. New people excite me and give me someone new to rant and babble at. New people give me new perspectives on not only their ideas, beliefs, and values, but on my own as well. There is also very few things I consider as fun as actually going up and meeting strangers. But, few people share my perceptions… and even fewer like to be at the brunt of it.
I love when people respond eagerly, but most do not. I’ve gotten surprise. I’ve gotten disdain. I’ve gotten the people who react as if I’m hitting on them (as a side note, why do people who have a lot of self confidence or self worth either get hit on a lot or people think that the person is hitting on them a lot?)…
I think the one that upsets me the most, though, is being ignored. First, I’m 6′5″ and I’m not exactly usual in my approach, so it is not like they didn’t notice.
“Oh, I must have just heard something that only sounded like the giant standing next to me looking like he wants a response…”
Or, when I’m being ignored, it is accompanied by a look of disgust or contempt. Oh yeah, please forgive me for being a HUMAN BEING and wanting to COMMUNICATE. How dare I violate you precious space and existence by saying hello?! Perhaps I should have even just dropped to ground and gone fetal to celebrate your mere essence! Should I grovel and clean your shoes while I’m busy shoving my friendly greeting in a place where you shouldn’t put those things?
People also will ignore you when they have low self confidence (actually, I would argue that those who are contemptuous are the worst for having low self confidence), but instead of facing themselves and talking to someone who greets them, they just sort of retreat and will not let anyone in. This is sad to me, because these are the people who need to be validated the most, and what is better than a friendly “hello” that has nothing attached to it?