This type of zoning
is to would be friendships what “friend-zoning” is to the would be romantic relationships. In the dating world when a person is friend
zoned they have absolutely no chance of moving their way into a romantic relationship.
In the making friend’s world, being acquaintance zoned is the inability to move
past a casual smile & wave with an occasional “hi” and some small talk
thrown in.
How do I know about
this? Because it’s happened to me and I bet it’s happened to you too. Really,
it has you just haven’t realized it yet. To help all of us who can be somewhat
clueless about these things. Here are some signs that you have been or are
currently being AZed (acquaintance is so long to type out each time so I’ll
just shorten it):
1). You have been AZed if after the first dozen times of
being around someone they still don’t respond when you bring up a variety of
topics. Surely, if I bring up the weather, food, drinks, current events, kids,
pets, aliens, pinterest, home towns, sports, meditating, circus clowns, or the
time/space continuum we can find SOMETHING to talk about. (I’m
only giving it a dozen because some people are painfully shy).
2.) If the other person often finds something else to do,
someone else to speak to, or somewhere else to be as soon as you walk up or worse…before you even get all the way to them.
They saw you coming & decided to head off before you have a chance to
engage them. Really, it can only occur a couple of times before it ceases to be
a coincidence and obviously becomes intentional.
3) If every attempt to get together is met with a, “that
sounds fun but…” No matter the day or time the other person is always busy and
if you ever just leave the ball in their court about when to get together the ball never comes back.
4.) Your attempt to “friend” them on FB is left unanswered
or declined. This one is pretty obvious…no subtlety here. Side note: This is the
lesser of the reasons why I do not send friend requests to people; in the years
that I have been on that site I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve
sent a request to. My own brother acquaintance – zoned me on fb…does that tell
you anything?!
Ok, so for those of you who tend to AZ people automatically:
chill out & give someone a chance! So they may talk a little different than
you or look a little different. Heck, they may even have a different point of
view and life experiences! It is quite possible that you may find an awesome
person lurking behind your perception of them.
