ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors discuss how time influences awkward interactions. Social interactions can go wrong at different moments in their temporal sequence: (1) anticipation, (2) intensification and expansion, (3) resolution, and (4) retrospection. Intensification and expansion have been discussed in Chapter 6 as part of interactional awkwardness. Resolution will be explained in Chapter 9, addressing how people deal with awkwardness. This chapter explains anticipatory awkwardness – awkward feelings in anticipation of a social interaction, often in social occasions imbued with latent awkwardness, such as first dates. Moreover, retrospective awkwardness can be experienced sometime after the interaction has taken place, such as when looking at photos of yourself as a teenager. The authors identify three temporal subtypes of awkwardness. First, in the absence of a script, people may experience “time-off awkwardness”, where they are unsure of what is the appropriate temporal structure. For example, the pandemic made the boundaries between work and leisure time fuzzy, resulting in awkward interactions. Second, a deviation from the script would lead to “odd-time awkwardness”, such as receiving a phone call from your dentist at 11 PM. Third, even when someone follows the script, things can still become awkward if the timing of a performance is off, such as during awkward silences. We refer to this as “no-flow awkwardness”.
