Don’t underestimate the ability of people to be confused. “Confused” can mean their inability to understand what you are explaining (which could also be on your shoulders by not explaining something clearly) or their inability to say what they mean. These types of confusions make it harder for people to connect.
Case in point: recently my wife and I were watching Wheel of Fortune on TV. During the course of the show, one of the individuals went on about some subject, making no sense. What was the point? We sure couldn’t tell. What was the person attempting to explain? Nothing we could figure out.
We looked at each other shrugged our shoulders, and said something to the effect, “This person sure is confused.” It make you wonder about the thought process when you encounter an individual like that.
Is there a cognitive breakdown inside the brain? Are they unable to process information in such a way that it can delivered to others in such a way that you actually communicate and have some common ground?
I’m not sure how prevalent confused people are in general, but I have a distinct sense there are more people like this today than there were 30-40 years ago. Or, maybe they are more visible through all the information outlets available to us, so it only seems like more people are confused.
A big problem when you encounter a confused person is you may think you’re on the same ground when you’re actually on a different planet. They’re talking about how some weird rays from outer space are targeting people in California cities, when you had raised a question about skin cancer from the sun. How did the discussion flip?
You don’t know. You’re not inside that other person’s head, so you have no idea whether they were listening or couldn’t process your question. They suddenly went down another track that made no sense. This, then, gets you to question yourself: “Did I screw up that question? Am I not making sense? Am I the confused person here?”
It’s all very odd. If you interact to any degree of regularity in face-to-face situations, you can relate to the confused individual. That’s because you walk away from those discussions wondering what happened and why you didn’t connect.
Maybe this is one reason people don’t interact face-to-face as much these days. They don’t want to be any more confused than they already are. Or, they want to avoid the continually confused human.
It’s important for all of us to make sense of the world. We all develop a way of seeing things, our own personal understanding. When the confused person steps in our sphere and talks nonsensically, it twists you out of your comfort zone. You don’t know what to make of it all.
You get confused. The other person was confused. Now we’re all confused. Solution: don’t interact with others. Or, at least don’t interact with people you find confusing.
If all that makes sense, but you’re not confused now, go back and reread this column. That should confuse you. If you choose not
Case in point: recently my wife and I were watching Wheel of Fortune on TV. During the course of the show, one of the individuals went on about some subject, making no sense. What was the point? We sure couldn’t tell. What was the person attempting to explain? Nothing we could figure out.
We looked at each other shrugged our shoulders, and said something to the effect, “This person sure is confused.” It make you wonder about the thought process when you encounter an individual like that.
Is there a cognitive breakdown inside the brain? Are they unable to process information in such a way that it can delivered to others in such a way that you actually communicate and have some common ground?
I’m not sure how prevalent confused people are in general, but I have a distinct sense there are more people like this today than there were 30-40 years ago. Or, maybe they are more visible through all the information outlets available to us, so it only seems like more people are confused.
A big problem when you encounter a confused person is you may think you’re on the same ground when you’re actually on a different planet. They’re talking about how some weird rays from outer space are targeting people in California cities, when you had raised a question about skin cancer from the sun. How did the discussion flip?
You don’t know. You’re not inside that other person’s head, so you have no idea whether they were listening or couldn’t process your question. They suddenly went down another track that made no sense. This, then, gets you to question yourself: “Did I screw up that question? Am I not making sense? Am I the confused person here?”
It’s all very odd. If you interact to any degree of regularity in face-to-face situations, you can relate to the confused individual. That’s because you walk away from those discussions wondering what happened and why you didn’t connect.
Maybe this is one reason people don’t interact face-to-face as much these days. They don’t want to be any more confused than they already are. Or, they want to avoid the continually confused human.
It’s important for all of us to make sense of the world. We all develop a way of seeing things, our own personal understanding. When the confused person steps in our sphere and talks nonsensically, it twists you out of your comfort zone. You don’t know what to make of it all.
You get confused. The other person was confused. Now we’re all confused. Solution: don’t interact with others. Or, at least don’t interact with people you find confusing.
If all that makes sense, but you’re not confused now, go back and reread this column. That should confuse you. If you choose not