Social Interaction

By: Lester Duarte

Senior Seminar Teacher: Stacy Joslin
BACS Coach: Rebecca Minard
Advisor: Tony Kulla
Introduction
High school students struggle with many situations such as homework, studying for a

test/quiz or even struggling to get help from a teacher or classmate. Throughout many days in

high school, many students who are quiet struggle in school. Those quiet/shy people are also

known as an introvert, people who are quiet and really keeps anything independent to

themselves. And for the people who are very talkative, those people are known as extroverts,

people who are enthusiastic or loves to interact with other people. Those students who are quiet

may just be quiet because they may feel uncomfortable about the surrounding areas, what people

are thinking about them, being too shy to ask for help or even not having someone to talk to

about how that student feels at that moment. It is known that helping some high school students

with their social skills is essential for helping them improve their social skills and not struggle in

their education. Therefore, it is essential to support students who struggle with social skills

because having great social skills is very important in the future when going to college, job

interviews, presentations, etc.

Background section:

Being an outgoing student can be great because you arent afraid of what people think.

Being outgoing can be the benefit in your life because you can ask classmates or teachers for

help without being anxious. How about being a student who is not outgoing? Will it affect their

education? Maybe. In the past, people really havent paid attention to people who arent very

outgoing. The result of that, a person may be struggling with getting the help they need, as well

as getting picked on without anyone knowing. Students who are awkward, shy, or tense do not

speak out as much. Maybe they're too afraid to even speak out about problems like bullying,

struggling in class or to express how they feel.

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 There are many reasons why a person may be quiet or shy. The article Succeed

Socially states, Someone might worry about coming across as awkward because they think it's

a horrible defect. (Succeed Socially). These may be some reasons why some students may feel

awkward or shy around people. In addition to this information, when shy feelings are this

strong, they prevent a person from interacting, participating in class, and socializing. (Kids

health). This explains why some students really dont love speaking out as much -- because this

shy feeling is stopping them from interacting with others.

There are different situation that can cause shyness in students. One might be that a high

school student isnt very comfortable in his or her surrounding areas or in other words, theyre

not feeling comfortable with the school environment. Maybe a student has transferred from a

different school and isnt very familiar with the students and teachers, which could be a big

reason why he or she is not outgoing. The article Shyness: The New Solution states, 64% of shy

individuals view their shyness as a result of external factors beyond their control, such as early

family experiences, over protective parents or peer victimization.(Carducci). People should be

more aware of these causes because based on the facts, these cases could affect the student's

education. These are some issues that may have started this problem in the first place. According

to a book by Susan Cain, psychologists often discuss the difference between temperament and

personality. Temperament refers to inborn, biologically based behavioral and emotional patterns

that are observable in infancy and early childhood; personality is the complex brew that emerges

after cultural influence and personal experience are thrown into the mix. Some say that

temperament is the foundation, and personality is the building. (Cain). Therefore, schools

climate can have a positive or a negative on a students comfort about speaking up.

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 The effects of these issues can be important for most high school students because it will

affect their education. When high school students feel scared to speak out, it may cause some

problems in their education and their social life as a result. When they are scared to talk, students

will have difficult times asking for help from a teacher and their fellow classmates. This will

make the student struggle in class. This could affect how they feel in the school. If a student

doesn't feel comfortable, this will could affect their education. Overall, the effects of this

problem could have an impact on the students future.

Section 1: (Social emotion)

Being a very awkward and shy person could be very difficult especially when you have

all of these emotions when talking to people. Students who really dont talk tend to overthink

what people think about their looks or personality. Sometimes it isnt even because of what

people think about them. Some high school students will get too nervous that they wont say

anything because they could say something dumb. According to an article called How to

Overcome Shyness, Feeling shy is the lower levels of your brain trying to protect you from

embarrassment. (Overshyness). This means that some students dont want to talk because

theyre concerned that other people will embarrass them in front of others. This is a cause for

some high school students being shy or quiet.

There could be other reasons why people have these emotions. Sometimes high school

students feel very insecure. Once a student first enters the new life of high school, their life will

change forever. Since around high school time the effects of puberty really kicks in, students will

care more about their appearance and voice. This leads towards a student being very insecure,

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maybe its their looks, maybe its their change of personality, or sometimes feel unlikeable,

(Succeed Socially) we dont know. A source by Succeed Socially states, Shy people are

sometimes insecure about what they think will make them come off badly in social situations.

(Succeed Socially). Basically, some high school students will overthink so much that they

overload in their heads. This leads to why shy people get so nervous when they talk to

someone they never talked before.

These social emotions can affect their connection with others and cause them to get

rejected by other students. This could really lead to some stress in that person because all they

want is to connect with their peers but since they have a lack of social skills, its hard to do that.

A researcher, Bernardo Carducci saw, people who have been rejected by their peers because of

their lack of social skills. People with shyness also dont feel connected to others. It can also

make them mad because of that. (Carducci) This explains that some students get frustrated

when they cant seem to use their social skills to connect with other classmates. In fact, having

these social emotions can make a student feel shy and feels imprisoned (Carducci) Therefore,

these emotions can make them feel like theyre behind a trapped door. Overall, these social

emotions can really affect their social skills in school and the outside world.

Counter Argument:

Many shy students may at some times, not care about what others think and will stay

quiet because they want to. It is a possibility, students will not care whatsoever about what others

think about them. They will come along to say that peoples opinions will not matter to them. As

Teddy Lim states, People are entitled to think whatever they want, just as you are entitled to

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think what you want. What people think of you cannot change who you are or what... are worth,

unless allowing them to. (Lim) This is meaning, students who are quiet, would really not care

whatsoever about what others think because those people cant change who they are. And some

quiet students will think about that. Therefore, quiet students may not care what others think

about them.

Section 2: (Effects on social life at School and their performances in education)

Being shy could have some effects on their education and school performances especially

when its hard to talk to other classmates and teachers. Students who are too quiet will have

trouble asking help on their assignment, test or projects. A study at the University of Miami in

2012 found that 4,417 shy [students] began the school year with the lowest academic skills and

apparently learned the slowest (Huffington). This is informing, that shy student did, in fact,

have trouble with their education. It also states, that they apparently learned the slowest

because of the lack of asking for help from teachers or fellow classmates. This study also shows

the students will have to come out of their comfort zone because it really could be helping their

education throughout the years. Therefore, being shy may have some effects on their educations.

Shyness can indeed affect education performances, but how about their social life at

school in general? Shy students have experienced many problems when it comes with trying to

make friends. Trying to make friends without having any social skills could be very difficult but

why? According to article by Bernardo J Carducci ,who have been rejected by their peers

because of their lack of social skills. People with shyness also dont feel connected to others. It

can also make them mad because of that. (Carducci) This evidence can explain that students just

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has trouble with communicating with other students. This also explains that shyness could very

in much indeed affect their social life at school. Shy students could feel disconnected due to

other students rejecting them because theyre too quiet and it can make them frustrated because

all they want to do is to make friends and not be rejected. Therefore, shyness could, in fact, affect

not just in their educational performance, but their social life at school as well.

Counter Argument:

What if those students who are quiet, dont struggle at school at all? There is a

possibility, that students could be quiet and actually succeed in all of their classes. As reported

by Marsha Pinto, some teachers like to base grades on participation, but if you could only hear

all the great ideas we have inside our head, youd learn that we have some great ideas to share. In

fact, we are practically masters of brainstorming. (Pinto). This is explaining, that students may

be quiet, but that doesnt mean that they always struggle in school. As it says in the quote, that a

quiet student have many ideas and they are great at brainstorming. This is showing me, students

can, after all, be smart but they just dont show it in class.

Solutions: (Ways to help students who struggle with social speaking)

Other ways to prevent students from being shy is all we need to come up with solutions

with help some high school students with their social skills. The reason why is because high

school is a life changing experience heading into college and we need to improve the shy

student's social skills so they wont struggle in life. An article called Benefits of Social Skills

learning states, social skills learning improves students positive behavior and reduces negative

behavior. While effectively preventing a variety of problems such as alcohol and drug use,

violence, truancy, and bullying, social skills learning promotes students academic success,

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health, and overall well-being. (Benefits of Social Skills learning). This means students will

have a much better behavior and academic success if they learned and improve their social skills.

Therefore, solutions can be created to help students who have trouble with their social skills. One

idea could be encouraging students to speak up because they want to talk but theyre waiting for

a chance. Encouraging these students could really help them feel more comfortable to talk more.

Another could be a social leaders group which helps people who have trouble with their social

skills. In this social leaders group, students will learn how to bond with other and it will improve

their social skills. What this group could do, is do ice breakers, collaboration activities and

lessons or advice that could help their social skills. In summary, we need to support students who

are struggling with social skills.

Section 3: (Causes of being socially quiet)

Why makes quiet students so independent from society? Is it because they dont like

people? Is it because theyre afraid of talking to people? Well, there could be many reasons for

why this is happening. Many students who don't talk, will talk eventually but something isnt

letting them talk all of the time. According to an article by People Skills Decoded, people who

are typical socially awkward doesnt feel comfortable in social situations. They are anxiety

producing. As it says, students can feel anxiety building up when they're in an uncomfortable or

unfamiliar setting. This could also be a big reason why some high school students can be quiet in

social situations at school. What if it isnt the environment of the school? What if it was how

they have a conversation with other people. In addition, some students may have the lack of

social skills. From the people at People Skills Decoded states, Everybody has conversations that

dont flow, have awkward silences or end abruptly. But for socially awkward people, this is the

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rule, not the exception. What this means, is that some students may just have the lack of social

skills. There could also another reason on why students are so quiet. A quote from a book Quiet

states, the truth is that many schools are designed for an extrovert. (Cain) This is could be true

for most schools that extroverts really do take over the school because an extrovert are very

outgoing people. But as for introvert students, they are very quiet, shy and are very independent

people. As the quotes explain, extroverts overcome the introverts and that's really a disadvantage

for the introverts to have a chance to speak to other people. Thats possibly a reason why some

students are quiet. A quiet student, may not know what to say next which leads to a good

conversation to an awkward conversation in a matter of seconds.

There are many reasons why people aren't so social even when trust issues come in

handy in high school. A researcher named Matt Okeefe from LifeHack says, Shy people really

dont know if they can trust that person. It takes some time to gain that trust from that person.

They want a chance to be comfortable with that person and maybe theyll open up. (Okeefe). To

clarify, in high school, people will eventually experience some type of trust issues. Thats why

some students dont love to talk because they dont want to go through that situation.

Counter Argument:

There are many possibilities, as to why people are just quiet; but what if those students

arent quiet at all. It is a possibility, that there could be some students that are quiet or shy

because they choice to be quiet. In the words of a student from Central Falls High School in

Central Falls, Rhode Island, as a student, I have a choice to be quiet in class because its

possible that they really dont feel like talking or they dont have the confidence to talk to other

people that they dont know This explains, that people have a choose to be quiet in class

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because some students may dont feel confident speaking to other classmates so they choose to

stay quiet. This also explains that some students dont even bother talking to the class because

they really have zero motivation to speak to other classmates. Therefore, it is possible that

students really have a choice to speak because maybe they dont feel like speaking at all to the

class.

Conclusion:

Overall, it is clear that shy students often struggle in high school. Research shows that

there are students out there who could be struggling in their education because they may not feel

comfortable with their surroundings areas, some students could bring them down for being shy

or they dont have the social skills they need to able to talk to random students. All we need to

know is that helping some introvert students with their social skills is important, for high school

students to improve their social skills so they wont struggle in the future with job interviews,

college, presentations, etc. To conclude, this is showing that we need to support students who

struggle with social skills because having great social skills is very important in the future.

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Work Cited:

Barton, Debra. "Why Do We Need Friends?" Quora. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2016.

Beliefs And Worries Which Sustain Shyness, Insecurity, And Social

Anxiety. Succeed Socially.

"Benefits of Social Skills Learning." POWER Solving. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.

Cain, Susan. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. New York:

Broadway Paperbacks, published on January 24, 2012. February 17, 2017.

Carducci, Bernardo. Shyness: The New Solution. Psychology Today, published on January 1,

2000. June 9, 2016.

Delange, Jacqueline. "Shying Away From Academic Success?" The Huffington Post. N.p., 29

Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2016.

DArcy, Lyness Shyness. TeensHealth. May 2013.

"How to Overcome Shyness." Overshyness., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

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Lim, Teddy. "10 Clear Reasons Why You Shouldnt Care What Others Think." Lifehack. N.p.,

n.d.

Web. 16 Dec. 2016.

Okeefe, Matt. 13 Things Shy People Will Never Tell You About Themselves. Life Hack.

Pinto, Marsha. "7 Things a Quiet Student Wishes Their Teacher Understood." The Huffington

Post, 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 22 Dec. 2016.

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