Talk to the ScreenSM
The biggest complaints sports fans have about the uninitiated among us are that we let them know we’re unhappy when they want to watch a sporting event or go to one instead of spending time with us OR we do it while they are watching their favorite sport. Even if we try to join in, if we don’t know what we’re watching and ask questions while THEY are watching the TV they hate it with a passion.
That’s where Incidental Contact can help. By learning the basics of a sport and how to talk about it, you fix 2 problems at once. You can spend time with the sports fans in your life and not interrupt the flow of the action. The most natural thing to do while watching a game is to yell, scream or merely comment on what is going on. Rhetorical questions, offers of advice and just plain cursing all are directed at the announcers or players. That kind of talking is fine. And let’s face it; everyone likes to talk about their favorite topics; and for sports fans that means showing you how much they know.
When you’re at home or at the fan’s home, Talking to the Screen means that you join in with the comments…. as long as you know what you’re saying. If you’re at a sports bar, Talking to the Screen acts as an ice breaker for starting a conversation with someone you’d like to get to know. Let’s face it, opening lines are mostly clichés and clever ones can seem too calculating.
But think of it this way: the screen is the middle man between you and the person you have noticed and who you’d like to meet. It usually feels too risky to sidle up to a person watching a game and catch their attention in the usual way; and it probably won’t work. That’s why I hear women tell me all the time that going to a sports bar is intimidating when they don’t understand the sport being featured at that time. Since Talking to the Screen is the norm and fans naturally do it, once you are into the flow of the game on the screen you’ll find yourself making a comment on a particular player, a penalty called by a referee and expressing joy or sorrow depending on how a play helps or hurts the team you are rooting for. You’ll more than likely hear someone speaking back, through the screen at first but after a while, actual eye contact can take place. It might start during a time out in the action or during a commercial break. But once it does, it can lead wherever you want. I have seen it happen time and again. You meet people in a natural atmosphere in which they don’t have an expectation of coming out of the experience with a phone number. So, you meet the real person.
Once you’ve learned to Talk to the Screen, you can determine for yourself if, in addition to the common sports interest, there is chemistry. That is hard to find using Internet dating sites. In this way, the game playing is limited to the screen. What a concept!