[nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?

Tue Sep 22 21:29:40 UTC 2009

well honestly i have only been around one guy totally blind since birth and 
he was socially awkward. When he was happy or excited he would do a wiggling 
of the butt up against someone and would giggle like a child when he was 27. 
I think he was sheltered his whole life by his parents since he was adopted 
and the only blind/V.I. in the house. I guess this gave me an indifferent 
impression.

Another guy with retina problems can see like looking through a straw and 
was a senior in college trying to be a priest. He is probably my hero and 
gave me some saying i will use in the future.

            -Teal
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jedi" <loneblindjedi at samobile.net>
To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Awkward Situations: What would you do?

> Teal,
>
> I don't know which blind guys you're hanging with, but I don't notice too 
> much difference between those born blind versus those who had sight at 
> some point. Fundamentally, there is no significant personality differences 
> between the two. Life experiences may vary, and life experiences shape our 
> perceptions, but not so much so that it fundamentally changes an 
> individual on such a deep level. That is, unless they let it.
>
> Respectfully,
> Jedi
>
>
> Original message:
>> 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-----
>>>>> Hash: SHA256
>
>>>>> 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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