Empathy is Hard
Jun. 14th, 2005 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsythIt really is. Getting it into your head that somebody else is a person just like you, and they're walking around wrapped up in their own world of thoughts and worries and things, just like you. But the fog of thoughts makes it almost impossible to see somebody else's.
And I'm no good at it, really. Which makes me some kind of hypocrite, I'm sure, given the stuff I say, but.
The human mind does generally seem to be wired to deal with other humans, especially faces. To the point where things vaguely like a face can seem expressive. Even just two dots and a line, like so :)
But I'm not very good at it. I'm utter rubbish. I have an hard time keeping interested in somebody, and not treating them like the equivalent of an NPC in an RPG, where you talk to them long enough to get the info/item/convince them to join your party, then walk off. I don't do the small-talk thing. I miss all of whatever little subtle clues people are supposed to pick up on. People just generally, well, aren't interesting. Part of this probably has to do with practice, never learned the things, so didn't learn them later, and so on, which does somewhat influence brain structure, which is why habits are so hard to break and people are creatures of routine. And some of it's, I dunno.
In the abstract, though, I care a lot about people. And online, through text, I'm decent at reading people, but that's a matter of text, not at all the same subject. And people tend to be more blatant online, 'cause all the little cues aren't there.
So yeah. Empathy is hard. But you have to at least try and remember other people are going through life pretty much the same way you are. Everybody's at the center of their own moving screen, and the rest of us are just standing around saying "Welcome to Coneria!"
Tags: Mindscribbles,Me, Life, The Universe, and Everything
And I'm no good at it, really. Which makes me some kind of hypocrite, I'm sure, given the stuff I say, but.
The human mind does generally seem to be wired to deal with other humans, especially faces. To the point where things vaguely like a face can seem expressive. Even just two dots and a line, like so :)
But I'm not very good at it. I'm utter rubbish. I have an hard time keeping interested in somebody, and not treating them like the equivalent of an NPC in an RPG, where you talk to them long enough to get the info/item/convince them to join your party, then walk off. I don't do the small-talk thing. I miss all of whatever little subtle clues people are supposed to pick up on. People just generally, well, aren't interesting. Part of this probably has to do with practice, never learned the things, so didn't learn them later, and so on, which does somewhat influence brain structure, which is why habits are so hard to break and people are creatures of routine. And some of it's, I dunno.
In the abstract, though, I care a lot about people. And online, through text, I'm decent at reading people, but that's a matter of text, not at all the same subject. And people tend to be more blatant online, 'cause all the little cues aren't there.
So yeah. Empathy is hard. But you have to at least try and remember other people are going through life pretty much the same way you are. Everybody's at the center of their own moving screen, and the rest of us are just standing around saying "Welcome to Coneria!"
Tags: Mindscribbles,Me, Life, The Universe, and Everything
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Cross genre
Date: 2005-06-14 12:25 pm (UTC)I say just deal with those folks which are worth the effort.
Not a very buddha way to look at it.
Darn it... I have to go meditate now and figure out IF there is actually an "Other People" limit breaker gauge...
Bugger, I hate it when I do that...
*wanders off muttering*