Why Real Life Meetings are better than Online Acquaintances?
We hear it from all sides: chat less, meet more! Real life meetings over online acquaintances! Nowadays, almost everything happens on online platforms, but back in the day, everything was so much better offline – at least when it comes to your social life.
But what happened to the old classic encounters in real life, and how can we get them back in the age of digitization?
#1: Use Online Platforms only to make the First Contact
These days we often communicate with someone exclusively online, where we often create our own idea of that person’s true character, body language and voice. This often leads to a mismatch in real life meeting because our brain is prone to optimize people.
Of course it feels more comfortable to make the first contact online, but as soon as you feel like there is a vibe between the two of you, initialise the next step and meet up in person.
#2: The first 7 Seconds show Who You Are
When meeting in real life, it may initially seem like the person suddenly becomes a complete stranger to you again – even after all the exchanged messages. This is why first impressions are more influenced by nonverbal cues than verbal cues.
In fact, research has shown that non-verbal cues are more than four times more influential in the impression you make than anything you say.
#3: Body Language affects First Impressions
Body language is an important part of human communication. It complements communication in a very specific way. This is essential and cannot be replaced by regular online conversations.
Most importantly, it shows real emotion. You can’t fake them like chat. So nonverbal ways to make a positive first impression can be your attitude, your smile, your eye contact, your raised eyebrows, and the way you greet each other.
#4: Face to Face Meetings over Online Chats
Researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine found in a study something very exciting. When you come into contact with other people, a hormone called oxytocin is released. This, in turn, causes the release of serotonin. This is known as the happiness hormone. It leads to a general state of happiness in the reward center area of the brain. Thus, you can say that pure physical contact leads to an improvement in well-being.
So you can actually say that pure physical contact leads to an increase in well-being.
#5: Real Life Acquaintances are Made Offline
When we talk to people and perceive the conversation as positive, the so-called mirror neurons activate. Thanks to this, we build a bond with our counterpart without even noticing it. This occurs, for example, when we imitate particular words, gestures or movements. By doing this, we put ourselves in the other person’s shoes to some extent. This way we can better understand the decisions we make. This in turn leads to a stronger connection as the person becomes more tangible to us.
In addition to spoken words, the brain registers non-verbal stimuli during a conversation. Such as gestures, tone of voice, etc.. which are subconsciously part of the decisions we make.
To conclude, we hope that with these 4 reasons we could convince you to be more active offline again. If you don’t know where to start, you can use NETME as a start to get back to good real-life meetings! We are waiting for you in restaurants, cafes and many other places!
