Fight it. I do. Whenever someone (stupidly, IMHO) uses "creepy" to refer to a socially awkward guy or girl (in my experience, it is mostly women, and sometimes

Fight it. I do. Whenever someone (stupidly, IMHO) uses "creepy" to refer to a socially awkward guy or girl (in my experience, it is mostly women, and sometimes men who use this epithet about socially awkward men), I generally point out that they are essentially engaging in the same sort of "ugh, he's not cool, let's get away from him" dance that they did in high school. Also the author seems a good candidate for being socially awkward "creepy" person herself. Examples: - #6 "Don’t talk about work. You can of course compliment someone on something they’ve done if you want." Wait what? I thought you were supposed to be networking -- why can't you talk about work? Are you supposed to talk about something personal they have done? Remember that people's careers are often crucified for making "unprofessional" remarks cause the person they were talking to (or the person behind them they were not talking to) can tweet about it or suchlike. - #7 "I definitely find the process of exchanging cards to be incredibly awkward." Um, "Here's my card". If the other person takes it, fine. Otherwise don't take it personally. Looks to me as if the author is projecting advice for dealing with her own specific set of social neuroses as being "non-creepy networking at a party".