Mirroring
Sometimes when a comedy show gets really funny, I memorize the set of sentences, usually with the same tonal expression, accent and the rhythmn of the original speaker. People liked my accuracy for that.
Also, I was once a teacher's favourite when it came to English vocabulary, which was what I used to mimic.
They thought that I really did know the meaning of those words, but as I grew older, I began to realize that I am not really getting the meaning of those words. I only memorized the type of situation those words were used, instead of the actual meaning, so sometimes, I could be way off.
This happened to my other languages too, and at a time, I wanted to relearn the definition of English words. (And I did make an effort at the time)
I have always done this. I remember doing it at the age of 3 in nursery, and it's written in my file from nursery that I always used to copy people (at the age of 1 and a half).
I've always done it a lot, 90%+ of my social interaction is mirrored. I copy what other people do, the things they say, the way they say it, body language ect. that goes with it.
I have modeled myself on several of my past fav T.V. characters. For example, I may say to myself "you have a sense of humor like this person from T.V.", then I'll only start laughing at things that character would laugh at, and only make jokes similar to only ones that that character would make.
I mirror people I know in real life too, but normally people off of T.V.......well, up until recently .
I've noticed that a lot of the Aspies I've met seem to do this too.
I did "mirroring" for a while, but not really anymore.
It was good to learn that way some socialstuff and how to use it, but then I found my own ways. Not allways "perfect", but they don't feel like acting...!
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"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
I never thought about doing that when I was younger. When I was working on social skills with my therapist, though, she was working with me on trying to make my body postures and walking more "normal," so she had me mirror her. I think the sitting postures worked better than the walking.
I just went through a job-seeking workshop where they went over interviewing skills. We had to do "mock interviews" in front of a group.
Apparently, I "mirror" other people quite well because that's one of the salient points the other people in my group pointed out to me during my evaluation. They actually said that I was "mirroring" the person giving the interview.
Of course, I was completely unaware of it at the time. Weird.
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"If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced."
-XFG (no longer a moderator)