Have you done this before?

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I just went in to the living room and was saying WOW that was the best season yet! My parents were like huh? I then said that was the best season of Smallville yet (Been watching them on DVD) and I tend to assume people know what I'm talking about (or atleast that's what I'd call it) and I was curious if anyone else does this.

I am guilty of this.

Yeah, or sometimes I might say something, assuming that the other person knows it, just for the heck of saying it. Without actually expecting a response. It's like I need more time to think about the fact that the other person doesn't know what I know and then say the relevant information. You could say it's laziness, or maybe too many things going on in my mind at once.

I think i did that from time to time, but later in life, i just learned to keep it to myself (trust me, was hard given a memory that acts like some fool who's flipping through TV channels using the remote) >< .

I did that a lot more when I was younger. I still do it, but I'm completely aware of what I'm doing, and let's be honest, confusing people is fun.

I dunno...nowadays...its "Oh goody, look what i get to drive in".

yep.

Yeah, it's a Theory of Mind thing.

It can be funny or really frustrating.

Yeah and then I realize it. My dad does this too.

I think I do this. For instance, I'll repeat "inside jokes" with "outsiders." I recently had a phone conversation with a friend, and I asked him (in a really fake, throaty, quasi-English accent--like a really bad attempt at imitating Sean Connery), "So, how's the circus business? How are the dancing bears, and the trapeze artists, and those clowns with the big shoes?" After an awkward pause, he just cracked up and was like, "What?"

I also assume that people have seen all the movies that I've seen. I'll quote various lines (and to be fair, I only quote the more popular ones) and half of the time, nobody understands the reference.

If I have a conversation with someone, sometimes at a later time I'll just start in again on the topic without a lead-in. I think that's because I've been continuing the conversation in my head and forget that the other person hasn't actually been participating.

I used to be terrible at this. I would just repeat an obscure line from a TV comedy show and expect everybody to laugh. Doesn't work if the people concerned have never heard the line before. After a few embarrassing occasions I learned to be more careful. The other thing I'd do was to make my own original jokes so intellectual and obscure that nobody could understand them - I thought the few who did get the joke would appreciate the high quality of my humour, but nobody got it, so it didn't work.

But as far as I know I've never made any obscure comments when simply trying to explain things. If anything I'd assume too little understanding by my audience, and would send everybody to sleep by pedantically explaining things they already knew. These days I try to apply the wisdom of certain educationalists who say that it's important to weigh up "where the student is at" before deciding what to tell them. It's one of those areas where I can easily put myself in the shoes of the listener - I can feel very stressed out when people aren't clear about what they mean, or when they explain stuff to me without first explaining why they think I need to know, and I certainly wouldn't want to make anybody else suffer like that.

Oh yes, guilty as charged!

One of the stupidest ones must've been back in junior high. I had watched a movie in the evening and the next day, still smitten with the movie (now I can't even recall which one it was), I asked a girl in my class if she had seen it, too. She said it hadn't been aired yesterday. I insisted that it had been, then after a while I realised I had seen it on video, not on a TV channel.

Last edited by Skilpadde on 07 Dec 2009, 6:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oh neat. It's kind of interesting I noticed alot of the topics I make I get responses of I did that when I was younger. I'm 23 and am doing these things that you did back as a child!! !! !! ! It's kind of sad when I think about it hopefully things change later on in life for me.

I wouldn't envy the coping strategies if I were you. Basically all I've done is to keep out of the way more, to censor my own immediacy......the only reason I don't make so many social blunders these days is that I don't talk and socialise so much any more. What I still can't do is to say the right thing, or crack the right joke, during "live" communication. There just isn't enough time to think.

By the way, I was about 26 when I was making my biggest social gaffes.

Yup.

Also I sometimes do it on purpose, dunno why, usually as an excuse to go on about something, so I'll say "wow this is great ain't it?" and someone will ask "what is?", so there's my cue to spend hours going on about whatever my current obsession is