explain this to me, if you will...

Post Reply New Topic

Maybe this belongs in "random" since it was pretty random.

I was at the grocery today. A hear a bag of vegetables fall off the display onto the floor. I turned and looked; I was ten feet away and there was a guy standing *right there* next to the display. He didn't turn, didn't look, and most certainly didn't pick up the vegetables and put them back.

Why?

I realize the guy didn't knock off the package. He was a couple feet away and looking the other direction. But why oh why didn't the noise catch his attention?

On a similar note, I was sitting in a quiet office yesterday, and one person was sitting next to me. A poster fell off the wall. I looked up and around to see what the noise was; the woman next to me didn't twitch a muscle.

What is going on here? Is there some complete sensory numbness that has grabbed hold of people? Why do these sorts of things garner no attention?

Why why why?

1. People today are overstimulated, so they're trained to ignore things. They're de-sensitized to all kinds of sensory input.

2. They figure that if you think they didn't notice, you won't expect them to pick it up.

I know the feeling - lots of people just aren't fussed or even observe that which goes on around them. I believe it has something todo with the senses of lots of AS being differntly attuned to NT.
It can serve you well though, whilst working on a farm, I noticed immediately when a horse went down with collic, because she started sounding different. Lots of other observational things like that are always happening.
I just wish central heating, air conditioning, page rustling in the library, copmy fans and just about anything else could be quieter. So easily distracted by them or trying to find the source of them.

They say a cat can sleep through anything but if he hears a can opener opening his favorite food he can spring to life.

Maybe the people are paying attention processed the noise and said it was not important. 90-95% people are in a mostly alert beta state when awake with eyes open doing tasks. So what would distract you they can filter out. Now if your ADHD like in a
theta state and not highly focus in the real world a sudden noise may shock you into
reality and you look at the cause of it. Myself I'm often so into my own world I would
still reject most out side noises even though I have inattentive ADHD.

When you are in your own world doing something you are doing, you aren't paying attention what is going on around you so you zone everything out you won't notice anything falling off the shelf. Kind of like ADHD. Perhaps the guy didn't hear it.




I realize the guy didn't knock off the package. He was a couple feet away and looking the other direction. But why oh why didn't the noise catch his attention?


Either he didn't hear it because he was so focused on what he is doing or if he did hear them fall, it wasn't important to him to know what it was.



On a similar note, I was sitting in a quiet office yesterday, and one person was sitting next to me. A poster fell off the wall. I looked up and around to see what the noise was; the woman next to me didn't twitch a muscle.


She probably didn't care for the sound. I do that too. Sometimes I can be doing something and then I hear something fall, I don't even want to hesitate to stop and see what it was because I don't want to be interupted.

I’ve noticed things like this too. NT’s just seem to be so oblivious to everything around them sometimes. It amazes me how most people won’t move their shopping cart out of your way until you say “EXCUSE ME” even though they are facing your general direction and should have been able to see and/or hear you coming, or how often I see people blindly walking into huge puddles on rainy days and then having the nerve to look surprised, or how most people don’t even notice sounds/smells/lights that seem glaringly obvious to me.

They were both probally just too lazy to be bothered pick them up. When I go shopping at department stores, I often times noticed merchandise items lying around on the floor. I seem to be the only person who cares to pick them up.

Could be laziness.
But there are also some interesting experiments done in this area.
It's amazing some of the things that NTs fail to notice that some of us would have difficulty in not noticing.
Evidence suggests that it is common for people to see only what they expect to see.

I think it's a case where no one wants to get involved in anything.

Laziness coupled with apathy.

If it had been me, even if I was ten feet away, I would have walked over and put the bag of vegetables back where they belonged. That's just who I am.

I really hate this because I don't like having to say anything to people in public. So I'll usually either stand there until they notice and move, or I'll just turn around and go down a different aisle.

Perhaps he was deaf.

I always assumed this was the case.I think it is the "it's not my job" mentality that is a by product of people being detached from their environments.I often pick up litter,it bothers me.I will replace a shirt on the floor of a store because it bothers me.
It is "out of place".I think this would be more common in a small village,where everyone feels like the "village" belongs to them?
This seems like a "superficial" phenomina,but I think it has larger social implications.

If people feel no connection to any thing outside their house and car,there is no reason for them to DO anything about their city,country,other countries or the world in general.The smaller "their space" becomes,the easier it is to abuse and ignore how their actions effect the planet as a whole....imho.

in the veggie section at the grocery store i witnessed a man clipping his fingernails and letting them fall to the floor, totally nonchalant..he's just lucky i am not a witch doctor that collected the 'droppings' and do a voodoo curse on him. arrgghhhhh...