It’s an all too familiar scene:

You walk into a waiting lobby and it’s full of people. You take a seat and look around only to see everybody on their cellphone texting, tweeting or scrolling through the web. You look to your left and notice somebody that looks pretty interesting and for a brief moment, you are tempted to talk to them, but you quickly retort the idea in fear of being “awkward.”

Thirty minutes pass by, and the room is still plagued by silence—the only type of interaction occurring is the occasional awkward eye contact you make with the person across from you. Eventually, your name is called for your appointment, and you leave the lobby unknowingly cheating yourself out of something priceless—genuine human interaction.

Recently, I have noticed a trend in which people are losing the ability to socialize with one another. Students will sit next to a person all year long and learn nothing about them. Hall mates won’t know each other’s names, and awkward silence fills the corridors of an elevator as it heads to its destination. The whole point is people don’t talk to each other anymore, and it’s a huge problem. As a Resident Assistant in a freshman dorm, I always take time to ask my residents about the problems they a currently facing as they adjust to the college lifestyle.

Almost 90 percent percent of the time, they mention something about having a hard time making friends. Naturally, I tell them that in order make friends, they must initiate conversation with people, to which they respond by saying they’re afraid to do that because they don’t want to be awkward or weird. Awkwardness is a result of not being comfortable in the given situation which one finds oneself. To translate this into simpler terms, in social settings, if you do not possess certain social skills, you will naturally feel uncomfortable due to your inability to perform adequately and thus miss out on genuine human interactions.

Social media really didn’t get popular until I was in about the eighth grade, when Myspace and Facebook became popular. However, smartphones, laptops and tablets weren’t the hype at the time, and the only access to social media was from a desktop computer. Therefore, the majority of interactions were conducted via in person or telephone, so in order to meet people and satisfy the need of interaction, one had to have social skills. As time progressed, social media became more accessible as technology became more portable. With apps such as Tinder, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, more and more social interactions began to take place online.

The paradigm has slowly began to shift, resulting in interactions over social media superseding in-person interactions. With the aid of social media, the fear of awkwardness is eliminated because a person is hiding behind a created identity that can molded to their liking. The fear of rejection is lessened because the chances of meeting the person on the other end of the keyboard are slim to none. The point I want to make is that if social skills aren’t sharpened and refined, you lose them.

We’ve all been guilty of being in a situation that was prime for social interaction but instead of taking advantage of it, we decided to pull out our phones and pretend to be busy. We fake phone calls, we scroll through the Instagram feed we’ve already seen and we continue to hide behind our screens even in the midst of a crowd. We may never know the potentially life-changing conversations that are right in front of our screen-lit faces, if we can’t break the cycle.

Now, the million dollar question you’ve all been waiting for: “How can I be more social and reap the rewards from forming genuine connections?’ Well, the most important thing in cultivating your social aptitude is to be genuine and say what you genuinely mean. People tend to get in trouble because they try to be something they are not. The more genuine you are, the more at ease you put people, allowing them to show their genuine self to you as well. So, next time you see something about someone you like, let it be known.

Step two in the process involves you actually caring for people. Everybody has a story to share and everybody is special in one way or another. With the materialistic culture we live in today, people who don’t fit the status quo are dismissed and shunned. When you come up to somebody and actually show enthusiasm about getting to know them, the possibilities are endless. Sometimes just sitting and talking to people can really brighten up their day. We often times don’t understand the power we have over other people’s lives. Not to be extreme, but engaging in a conversation with somebody can save their life.

Along with potentially saving a life, you never know who you can meet or what opportunities you can open yourself up to by simply saying hello. A man is judged for his character not for his possessions, so next time you’re thinking about being short with someone, remember that they have a story and your actions can play a big role in the direction of that story.

Lastly, one must be approachable and receptive. Nowadays, people are so guarded and so uptight that the thought of saying a word to them is terrifying. Seventy percent of communication is non-verbal, meaning that if your body language is “standoffish,” people will be less likely to approach you. If you want to be approached, relax your face, smile more and open up your body. The biggest compliment that can be given to a person is the gift of conversation. When a person starts a conversation with you, they are basically saying that out of the infinite things they can be doing with their time, they chose to spend it engaged in banter with you. So. next time someone says hello, converse and see where it goes.

I would like to end this article with a true story that I hope inspires you to be open and receptive to in-person social interaction.

“I was having car troubles one weekend so I took my car in to the Volkswagen dealership to get some repairs done. Like usual, I was on my phone and laptop in a waiting lobby alongside five people. Eventually, I was quoted an absurd price for the repairs that my car needed to go through. After the Volkswagen representative left, I stayed in the lobby waiting for some paperwork to be filled out. As I prepared myself to become once again immersed in my laptop, I heard a voice speak to me.

The man across the room made a comment directed at me referencing how ridiculous the prices are at Volkswagen for car repairs. We shared a few laughs, and the conversation was beginning to die down. At this moment in time, I had two options—I could have either let the conversation die or I could keep on talking and get to know this man. Something told me to choose the latter, and I reengaged the man in conversation. We talked for a while about numerous topics and eventually he relocated next to me. It was a really fun experiencing having someone want to know about you and at the same time allowing you to learn about them.

Eventually, the kind gentlemen had to depart but before he did, he handed me a business card. He informed me that I was a fine young man who had a bright future ahead and he wanted to stay in contact with me. He told me to send him my information and resume so that he could pass it along to others. After I gave him my information, I received an email from a very prestigious person at a very prestigious company informing me to apply for an internship. This just goes to show that you never know what can follow after a simple “hello.”