[The One]

Now I'm one of those people (as I'm sure many others reading this are), that takes a step back from the social life (for whatever reasons), and perfers to watch and analyze the ways that the gears of the human mind turn (not to put it in a creepy way or anything :roll), and I've actually become very good at it.

I'm currently at university, and I must say I got a SA nightmare of a neighbour, the loudest, most over-confident, arrogant, who takes it in his stride to get in your face, insult and annoy you. Look, hes got a megaphone in his room, that he uses frequently, if that aint saying somthing, I dunno what is.

But enough background on me, I want to talk about somthing I decided to use recently: taking and using the personalitys of people that I have known/been freinds with...

Now I have for as long as I can remember thought of myself as a rather boring person, don't oftern have much to say and even if I do, I don't oftern come up with anything interesting

So.... I thought back to what my freinds from my old schools used to do that was fun and try and use it myself (seeing as near to no people will know the people from my last school it will be fresh and new to them, even if its old to me).

A good example of this was a little 'game' my freind used to play whenever there was nothing to talk about. It involved making up a silly, funny situation and asking people what they would do if it happened eg. "What would you do if you got back to your room there was just a homless guy standing in your, room wearing your clothes?", random stuff like that.

And well...it works. Definatly seems to break awkward silences, and lighten up moods, so i started taking random other snipits of other peoples personalitys that i though were good. Going to see how that works out.
But the real question is, do you think this is wrong? Everybody always says to 'just be yourself', but after many years I figured that just doesn't work, so I decided to be other people :um
And in the end, who are we but a collection of everything we done and everyone we known? Maybe I'm getting too philosophical for a guy that does mechanical engineering, just wanted to know what you lot thought.
Who knows, maybe it will even help someone.

 

[Eugenie]

I have a tendency to do the same thing. And have spent some time obsessing over whether or not it is okay. And the answer I came up with is that it is fine to use other people as inspiration for who you want to be, and to draw on various aspects of other people's lives to build up a pastiche of the life you want. But if you focus too much on one individual person and actually try to outright copy their life and become that person, that is not good. You will never be happy and will always feel like a fake. Looking around at other people is a good way of trying on different ways of being to see what is the best fit for you...

 

[rickthegreat]

making up a silly, funny situation and asking people what they would do if it happened eg. "What would you do if you got back to your room there was just a homless guy standing in your, room wearing your clothes?", random stuff like that.

I am stealing that idea from you. Or from him. Or from whoever. (Seriously, I'm not kidding) I think it's ok to do what you describe.

Although I can see what you mean, but people affect people like that all the time. Ever notice you end up saying a word or phrase that someone you hang out with says a lot? I mean even if you try to copy someone exactly, it probably won't come out exactly like that person. It'll come out different enough, it'll come out as your version, with your own personality. So heck even if you still hung out with that guy, you could do that as long as you don't overdo it.

 

[Brightpaperwarewolf]

Outgoing people steal each other ideas all the time. That's just the way it works. But someone could have an idea, and you take ownership of it by changing it around to a way it works for you. If it feels good, just do it!

 

[bloobla]

I've had this idea too! But my approach would be different. I wouldn't be stealing the repertoire of outgoing persons, per se. I'd just observe the subtle details.

Their timing...How much attention they are giving to the person they're talking to...ect. And I'm pretty sure there are other details to be looked at.

 

[Jeff]

No I don't think its wrong. Even the most successfully outgoing people in this world don't just automatically know how to socialize, they learn their skills and material from the world around them. I think we're all connected a lot more than we all realize.

 

[roverred]

Well I would say as long as you try to learn from their good traits and add them to your toolbox but not make them your toolbox. Else I would feel fake.

 

[smalltowngirl]

I don't think what you described was really "stealing their personality." It was more like stealing an ice breaker.