What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Openness?

What do we do when we meet someone for the first time? To break the ice and start a smooth conversation, we can use openness. This means that we provide information about ourselves. No one asks us for personal things. Still, we could use openness. After all, we want to create a bond with the other person.

We view openness as a strategy. That’s because it’s part of our social skills. Some people use these competencies more regularly than others. Its use is useful. However, they can lead to certain problems when we use them in excess.

Openness when we meet someone new

How can you recognize openness? Well, that’s very simple. Whenever you express your opinions, express your desires or talk about yourself, you are using openness. We’ve mentioned it before. This is a great strategy for helping others get to know you better. Moreover, it creates a warm and pleasant atmosphere.

In general, it helps you to connect with the person you are getting to know. For example, if you express your thoughts and someone agrees, you are on the right track to building a strong connection.

Giving information about ourselves to others is very pleasant. It creates a climate of trust and invites the other person to talk about themselves as well. In these circumstances, it is normal for there to be interest and a barrage of personal questions.

Openness is a very useful tool that you can use if you really want people to get to know you. You are the person who knows yourself better than anyone else.

If you don’t think you have a lot of social skills, this is a great strategy for starting a conversation with someone. Giving information is always something attractive. It makes the other person curious and wanting to hear more.

Even if you use this strategy, you can still make some mistakes. There are times when we don’t know why the other person doesn’t like us or why we don’t click. Situations like this can reveal issues related to openness. Now let’s dig a little deeper into this.

The problems of openness

Openness seems to be an excellent way to start conversations and meet new people. However, the truth is that sometimes we are better off without it. We will now show some mistakes we make regarding this strategy. They can lead to uncomfortable situations.

Creating a false image

Any information we share about ourselves with others is “good information.”  So we don’t talk about the things we don’t have. We also do not mention our shortcomings and weaknesses.

If we only give good information about ourselves, we can create a false image of perfection. This can cause us to lose credibility.

Think of a situation where someone thought he was flawless and better than everyone else. That person probably exaggerated everything he said. Perhaps he focused too much on his positive qualities instead of balancing them with his flaws.

Sharing too much information

Some people like others to be completely transparent with them. They then want the other to tell his life story, even though they have just met.

However, some people are quite uncomfortable with certain types of information. For this reason it is important that you are careful. You need to get to know the person before sharing a lot of information with them.

Being too explicit can also make the person you don’t know feel very uncomfortable. The reason for this is that you don’t know what is taboo for them. You don’t know what they think or how they feel about the subject you are talking about.

For example, telling a story in real detail or expressing your deep feelings can lead to rejection if there is insufficient trust in the other person.

So it’s crucial that you pay attention to the person’s body language and facial expressions. This will help you to discover whether you should keep some things to yourself or if you can keep going.

We also have another important note. If you are too closed and reserved, it will be more difficult to create new relationships.

However, this also applies to sharing too much information and talking to someone we don’t know as if we’ve known them for years. So it is essential that you stay away from extremes. Balance is key to the success of openness.

The experiences with openness

Chances are, most of us have made mistakes when it comes to openness. This is completely normal. It is not easy to make a distinction.

What kind of information do you give in the beginning? Will you guess if the other person feels bad or uncomfortable with what we tell them? Little by little, experiences will teach you when, how and with what kinds of people you can make use of openness.

Most importantly, we are aware of the times when we automatically use this social skill. It is essential that you start using it consciously. After all, that way we can have good experiences and build special ties with different people.