“Awkward silence” isn’t awkward at all. It’s comfortable.

When a group of people are together, but not really doing anything, there will often be talk. And usually, that talk will be a simple “how’s your day going so far?” or “how’s your week going?” And usually, everyone will give a little small talk answer, and then there’s a silence. And since people don’t like silence, they try to talk, but nobody can think of anything to say, so they get awkward, and fumble over words, and finally break the silence with a bad, forced, awkward “knock knock” pun or a stupid “guess what” story. <br><br>In my opinion, this whole situation could be avoided if instead of silencing the silence, we just sat in silence. I mean, wouldn’t that be comfortable? We don’t HAVE to be talking all the time. Sometimes, people can just be together with each other in silence. It’s okay. There’s nothing awkward about it. It’s comfortable. I would even say that it’s natural. People used to sit together in cars, in silence. Now they all have to bust out the iPhone and find chat rooms to talk to others. People used to be able to sit next to one another on a bus without having to talk. Now, the only way a bus ride can be tolerable is if everyone has their own phone to zone out with. Even if we’re doing the exact same thing, we as a society find it uncomfortable to just do something together in silence. <br><br>I shouldn’t have to make a conscious effort to just sit in silence with someone. I shouldn’t have to remind myself (or anyone else) that it’s ok to not talk right now and just be together in silence. I should be able to just sit in silence without any effort at all. <br><br>We as a society need to be able to be comfortable with each other in silence. I feel like if we had this, many problems would be worked out much easier. Couples wouldn’t have to go to marriage therapy because they don’t know how to sit together in silence. <br><br>There’s nothing wrong with sitting together in silence. It’s comfortable.