[nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?
Mark J. Cadigan
kramc11 at gmail.com
Mon Sep 21 15:56:50 UTC 2009
I have dark glasses because of severe light sensitivity. I didn't intend to
imply I was emotionless, just that people say I am.
I have been blind since birth. I don't intend to look unfriendly, just
friends and family and the like say I do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Teal Bloodworth" <tealbloodworth at gmail.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?
> you dont show any emotion? I am sorry but that is hard to believe....maybe
> the facial expression you do show is presumibly unfriendly?
>
> As for them not talking to you that is rediculus. The dark shades is
> alittle stereotipical for me but i oddly keep my eyes open....Not sure why
> and i say i am totally blind but i dont just see darkness. This is
> probably a psychological factor in that i see a type of gray scale all the
> time and in department stores it seems to be lighter because of the
> numerous florescent lighting but other times i cannot really tell for sure
> whether i am in a lighted room or not. Have you been blind or visually
> impaired since birth? I have found a slight difference in personality
> characteristics in people blind since birth and those that have become
> blind in the middle of life. And honestly i have heard of people who wear
> the dark shades but never personally met anyone that does. Can i ask you
> why you choose to do so?
>
> -Teal
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark J. Cadigan" <kramc11 at gmail.com>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 8:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?
>
>
>> Most sighted people just think I am angry or something based off my
>> facial expression. I am just neutral, neither happy nor mad or any ware
>> else on the emotional spectrum. Some people don't like it when I don't
>> make/keep eye contact. Sometimes people don't talk to me, because they
>> think I am too unreadable at times.
>>
>> As a side note, how do you think wearing dark sunglasses all the time
>> affects others reaction to you? In my experience my dark glasses and
>> occasionally emotionless body language create a lot of oukword
>> situations.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Teal Bloodworth" <tealbloodworth at gmail.com>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 9:00 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?
>>
>>
>>> Honestly, yes i have had vision before but my eye movement via TBI isnt
>>> the best however people say through my facial expressions and ability to
>>> look in the direction of the person thanks to depth perception people
>>> say i dont even look blind. I am not sure of what a typical blind person
>>> looks like but i believe all of these reflexes you are describing comes
>>> naturally from your environment and maturation during infancy. We are
>>> actually talking about this in developmental psych. Reflexes like
>>> reaching, grabbing and walking and talking is a distinct developmental
>>> stage according to piaget. Some say we learn these through environment
>>> and social interaction while others say it is a specific cognative
>>> change in our biological being.
>>>
>>> I agree with yu that it is a very interesting question and this topic is
>>> a personal interest. As for showing the world when you are pissed off or
>>> sad or even happy i dont think you learn from actually seeing other
>>> peoples responses to an action. I believe you learn these emotions
>>> through personality development of what actions give you these feelings,
>>> then these feelings are visually portrayed naturally.
>>>
>>> Dont quote me on anything, this is my opinion of the answer to your
>>> question...i am a social work/psychology major
>>>
>>> -Teal
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Joseph C. Lininger" <jbahm at pcdesk.net>
>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 5:29 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?
>>>
>>>
>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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>>>>
>>>> Teal,
>>>> LOL That's funny. Honestly, I've never had much sight and never had
>>>> muscle control over my eyes. So I don't know much about looking at
>>>> other
>>>> people, eye contact, that sort of thing. I have been told it's
>>>> disconcerting for a person to never make eye contact, and that it's
>>>> even
>>>> more disconcerting for a person to make eye contact constantly and
>>>> never
>>>> break it. I'm afraid I never learned the finer points though.
>>>>
>>>> This is somewhat related, and I'd be curious to know what the
>>>> psychologists and sociologists among you think. I'll need to lay a
>>>> little ground work for the more general question, so bare with me. I've
>>>> known for some time that my emotions and moods are communicated
>>>> visually, at least sometimes. But I had something happen that actually
>>>> got me curious about trying to find out exactly how it happens. We had
>>>> a
>>>> router go down in a data center at a company I had been working for a
>>>> few months ago. I'd had a bad day the day before trying to get
>>>> everything working, and that router went down at about 4 am and took
>>>> the
>>>> entire company off the Internet. Well, I came out of my hotel room and
>>>> one of the first things the guy driving me to the data center said was,
>>>> "wow Joe, you look really pissed off. Like maybe you'd like to kill
>>>> someone." I hadn't given any hint to being pissed off, though I was. I
>>>> wasn't even aware of it being communicated in my looks, I'd tried to
>>>> look pleasant and ready for another day despite the promise of yet more
>>>> problems.
>>>>
>>>> After this, I became curious about exactly how expressive or not I was
>>>> with body language, facial expressions, etc. I asked people who had
>>>> known me for a while, mainly family members about it and they all said
>>>> I
>>>> was in fact expressive visually, at least to a point. My sister even
>>>> provided a running commentary one day for a few minutes on what my face
>>>> was doing while conversing with people at her house. So, here's my
>>>> question.
>>>>
>>>> I always thought that at least to a point people learned these
>>>> expressions and that mostly by observing those around them and learning
>>>> what they meant. I knew basic stuff like a smile or frown didn't work
>>>> that way, and I could even understand certain reflexive expressions.
>>>> For
>>>> example, stiffening in response to fear or anger. However, I thought
>>>> the
>>>> more detailed stuff, arching eyebrows, moving of the eyes with certain
>>>> expressions, that sort of thing was learned behavior. Well, seeing in
>>>> how I can't see others doing these things and never have been able to,
>>>> how would I have possibly picked them up? Have any experiments been
>>>> done
>>>> regarding such things? And more interesting... Some stuff, such as
>>>> nodding, shaking the head, or shrugging, I had to be specifically
>>>> taught
>>>> those while I didn't other expressions. Does anyone have any ideas on
>>>> what governs what visual cues are natural or learned in spite of lack
>>>> of
>>>> vision and which must be picked up visually?
>>>> - --
>>>> Stress (N): The condition that occurs when ones mind overrides the
>>>> body's natural desire to reach out and slap the hell out of someone
>>>> who desperately deserves it.
>>>> Joseph C. Lininger, <jbahm at pcdesk.net>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
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