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[Humour] Avoiding Other People



Half Time Pies

Well-known member
Sep 7, 2003
1,593
Brighton
Does anyone have an issue with knowing people through social media but not well enough to feel comfortable speaking to them in person? My wife is a bit of a super recogniser and was telling me about some of the people she has on social media as friends, who message her, react to all of her posts, and then when she sees them in public they run a mile and pretend they don't know her!
 




METALMICKY

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2004
6,943
I’m similar. I recognise faces but am terrible at remembering names. I’ve had some awkward conversations with people I recognise whilst agonising inside trying to remember their name.
I think we've all had that one and it's a complete nightmare if you are with your partner or a mate and you can't do an introduction because you can't remember their name. Trying to chat naturally whilst internally going through the alphabet is not my forte!
 


Doonhamer7

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2016
1,462
About 35years ago my mum’s neighbours next door nearly bumped into the neighbours across the road in Corfu - went into shop so the other couple and walked straight out. Turns out they didn’t like each other
 


jcdenton08

Offended Liver Sausage
NSC Patron
Oct 17, 2008
15,034
Did you know that there is a neurological condition called prosopagnosia (face blindness) which affects a persons ability to recognise faces? I am pretty sure I have this as have exactly the same problem you are describing with recognising people! https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/face-blindness/

Apparently there are an estimated 1.2 million people with prosopagnosia in the UK and even a charity that is set up to support people with the condition: http://faceblind.org.uk/

Interestingly there are also 'super recognisers', people that have a significantly higher than average ability to recognise faces. I have a friend who is like this, he can spot people that we went to school with 35 years ago in a crowd of people! When we were younger he would start chatting to someone that we both knew in the past and could never understand why I was standing there absolutely oblivious as to who they were!
Could also be autism.
 


jcdenton08

Offended Liver Sausage
NSC Patron
Oct 17, 2008
15,034
One of my more embarrassing episodes was at Brighton station about 25 years ago. I saw someone I thought I recognised, definitely he had a familiar face. I stared at him and he looked back at me, and I thought he looked like one of the other dads from my son's football team, so I thought I'd better start a conversation so he wouldn't think I was rude. So I asked him how he was and how the family was and where was he off to etc, you know, usual conversational stuff, but I could tell from his answers that he didn't really know who the hell I was or what I was talking about. Eventually the penny dropped and I realised who he was - it was the actor Peter Ellis who played Chief Superintendent Brownlow in 'The Bill'. No wonder he looked familiar as I watched The Bill a lot in its heyday. Anyway to cover my embarrassment I just said "Well gotta go, my train's about to leave, nice talking to you, see you soon, bye!" and legged it to leave him wondering what nutter he had just engaged with.

EDIT: Of course it might have been just someone who looked like Peter Ellis ...
Those eyebrows are pretty unmistakable
 




Durlston

"You plonker, Rodney!"
Jul 15, 2009
10,043
Haywards Heath
I was up at the Princess Royal hospital yesterday lunchtime for a tiredness bug that I haven't been able to shake off for about a week now.

The A&E department was chock-a-block with about 40 people in front of me, all looking pretty ill. Now one thing immediately struck me as I grabbed a seat between a couple of girls in their twenties and an elderly sick man with his wife looking after him. There was not one black or Asian face waiting. Amazing that, isn't it? I guess they never get ill. Or is it that their practice gives them preferential treatment for new/foreign people moving to or living in Haywards Heath and the surrounding areas? I do not know but I am very curious of that. One of the girls near me had what sounded like whooping cough (caught from her young child she mentioned) - normally I would run a mile with something like that but as I was so tired, I asked her to give me a nod if I was asleep when my name was called. Fortunately I grabbed half an hour before triage but was awake when called. Then the never ending wait after for treatment. The service was excellent despite waiting nearly five hours in total. Not bad.

And the one thing that actually made me feel quite proud really - everybody was kind and considerate to each other - most were wearing a poppy (not that it's a big thing) and everyone was speaking the same language. It was like going back 25 years in time and it was bloody nice despite feeling absolutely dreadful.

No doubt I'll be attacked for my right-wing views and probably called a racist bellend but I imagine A&E departments up and down the country are in a similar state that if you're white, it's not alright.......:down:
 




I was up at the Princess Royal hospital yesterday lunchtime for a tiredness bug that I haven't been able to shake off for about a week now.

The A&E department was chock-a-block with about 40 people in front of me, all looking pretty ill. Now one thing immediately struck me as I grabbed a seat between a couple of girls in their twenties and an elderly sick man with his wife looking after him. There was not one black or Asian face waiting. Amazing that, isn't it? I guess they never get ill. Or is it that their practice gives them preferential treatment for new/foreign people moving to or living in Haywards Heath and the surrounding areas? I do not know but I am very curious of that. One of the girls near me had what sounded like whooping cough (caught from her young child she mentioned) - normally I would run a mile with something like that but as I was so tired, I asked her to give me a nod if I was asleep when my name was called. Fortunately I grabbed half an hour before triage but was awake when called. Then the never ending wait after for treatment. The service was excellent despite waiting nearly five hours in total. Not bad.

And the one thing that actually made me feel quite proud really - everybody was kind and considerate to each other - most were wearing a poppy (not that it's a big thing) and everyone was speaking the same language. It was like going back 25 years in time and it was bloody nice despite feeling absolutely dreadful.

No doubt I'll be attacked for my right-wing views and probably called a racist bellend but I imagine A&E departments up and down the country are in a similar state that if you're white, it's not alright.......:down:

I'll be honest now, my first thought upon going into an A+E waiting room isnt 'jeez, how many ethnic minorities are here? Let me count them' because they're just people, who are exactly the same as me, only with a bit more melanin in their skin.

Oh, there's none here! Now is that a statistical anomaly, considering Haywards Heath is a central sussex town thats overwhelmingly white (90% according to this page https://citypopulation.de/en/uk/southeastengland/west_sussex/E63006170__haywards_heath/ ) OR is it a massive conspiracy thats against you?

Must be the conspiracy.
 




Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
I was up at the Princess Royal hospital yesterday lunchtime for a tiredness bug that I haven't been able to shake off for about a week now.

The A&E department was chock-a-block with about 40 people in front of me, all looking pretty ill. Now one thing immediately struck me as I grabbed a seat between a couple of girls in their twenties and an elderly sick man with his wife looking after him. There was not one black or Asian face waiting. Amazing that, isn't it? I guess they never get ill. Or is it that their practice gives them preferential treatment for new/foreign people moving to or living in Haywards Heath and the surrounding areas? I do not know but I am very curious of that. One of the girls near me had what sounded like whooping cough (caught from her young child she mentioned) - normally I would run a mile with something like that but as I was so tired, I asked her to give me a nod if I was asleep when my name was called. Fortunately I grabbed half an hour before triage but was awake when called. Then the never ending wait after for treatment. The service was excellent despite waiting nearly five hours in total. Not bad.

And the one thing that actually made me feel quite proud really - everybody was kind and considerate to each other - most were wearing a poppy (not that it's a big thing) and everyone was speaking the same language. It was like going back 25 years in time and it was bloody nice despite feeling absolutely dreadful.

No doubt I'll be attacked for my right-wing views and probably called a racist bellend but I imagine A&E departments up and down the country are in a similar state that if you're white, it's not alright.......:down:
And the staff? Did you rate their skin colours?
 


nickbrighton

Well-known member
Feb 19, 2016
2,185
Did you know that there is a neurological condition called prosopagnosia (face blindness) which affects a persons ability to recognise faces? I am pretty sure I have this as have exactly the same problem you are describing with recognising people! https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/face-blindness/

Apparently there are an estimated 1.2 million people with prosopagnosia in the UK and even a charity that is set up to support people with the condition: http://faceblind.org.uk/

Interestingly there are also 'super recognisers', people that have a significantly higher than average ability to recognise faces. I have a friend who is like this, he can spot people that we went to school with 35 years ago in a crowd of people! When we were younger he would start chatting to someone that we both knew in the past and could never understand why I was standing there absolutely oblivious as to who they were!
Id never heard of this, but on reading the symptons it explains a lot about me!-i have moaned for ages that in tv and film the characters often look alike and i have trouble telling them apart-mainly women, if they have similar build i can literally be at a loss as to who is who

I take ages to recognise new or casual acquaintances easily, if we are in town and we happen to meet a neighbour from the street, or out of the normal context I quite often have no idea who they are

I rarely recognise people I met a long time ago

Im gonna read up more on this
 


AK74

Bright-eyed. Bushy-tailed. GSOH.
NSC Patron
Jan 19, 2010
1,442
I was up at the Princess Royal hospital yesterday lunchtime for a tiredness bug that I haven't been able to shake off for about a week now.
The A&E department was chock-a-block...
1730898224166.png
 






kevo

Well-known member
Mar 8, 2008
9,886
Used to have a friend, an old college mate, and for various reasons I decided to end the friendship.

Although we had been close mates during our student days, and even went on holiday together, I was just not getting anything out of it anymore (he was depressed and miserable most of the time, seeing him was never 'fun' and he was also very needy, as he basically didn't have any other friends. He also didn't mix well with my other mates at the time) The relationship was just emotionally and mentally draining.

It sounds callous, but I ended up effectively 'ghosting' him - not returning his calls etc and eventually the friendship just died a natural death.

About ten years after I had last seen him, I was on my way to work in London one morning and crossing a park on my normal route to the office, when I bizarrely saw him sitting on a bench, facing away from me, reading a book. Part of me really wanted to walk up to him and see how he was doing and have a catch-up for old time's sake. But I knew that if I did that, it would rekindle the friendship, which I really didn't want.

So I just carried on walking...
 
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Half Time Pies

Well-known member
Sep 7, 2003
1,593
Brighton
Id never heard of this, but on reading the symptons it explains a lot about me!-i have moaned for ages that in tv and film the characters often look alike and i have trouble telling them apart-mainly women, if they have similar build i can literally be at a loss as to who is who

I take ages to recognise new or casual acquaintances easily, if we are in town and we happen to meet a neighbour from the street, or out of the normal context I quite often have no idea who they are

I rarely recognise people I met a long time ago

Im gonna read up more on this
Yes it was a bit of an eye opener when I, quite recently, found out about it! I was laughing to myself when I saw your post as I have exactly the same problem with TV shows and films, someone will pop up in a scene and I have to ask my wife who they are and its sometimes a main character but I think I have never seen them before, on other occasions I get people mixed up and think a character is a different one. I have always hated films or series where they jump backwards or forwards in time because I completely lose track of who is who and therefore the story line!
 




Goldstone1976

We Got Calde in!!
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Apr 30, 2013
14,163
Herts
Like some others I very frequently cannot tell whether I’ve seen someone before or not.

It happens most frequently on the TV if we’re binge watching a box set. Start of new episode:

‘Have we seen him/her before’?
‘Yes’
‘Who is it?’
‘It’s [insert character, often the main lead]
‘Oh, right’

The worst case in real life was when I was in the RA book store looking for the exhibition book. I found it, went to pay, and walked out and over to the bench where my partner was waiting for me.

Her: ‘did you blank him on purpose?’
Me: ‘huh?’
Her: ‘[a very well known person who I happen to know well] walked up to you and started talking to you and you blanked him and walked away.
Me: ‘Really? I thought he was some hobo who I didn’t want to engage with so I walked away. Are you sure it was X?’
Her: ‘100%’
Me: ‘Crap’

I texted him later… sorry; blah, blah, blah.

Him: ‘don’t worry. That’s the third time you’ve done it to me. I’ve got used to it’ 🤦‍♂️
 


marlowe

Well-known member
Dec 13, 2015
4,342
I was up at the Princess Royal hospital yesterday lunchtime for a tiredness bug that I haven't been able to shake off for about a week now.

The A&E department was chock-a-block with about 40 people in front of me, all looking pretty ill. Now one thing immediately struck me as I grabbed a seat between a couple of girls in their twenties and an elderly sick man with his wife looking after him. There was not one black or Asian face waiting. Amazing that, isn't it? I guess they never get ill. Or is it that their practice gives them preferential treatment for new/foreign people moving to or living in Haywards Heath and the surrounding areas? I do not know but I am very curious of that. One of the girls near me had what sounded like whooping cough (caught from her young child she mentioned) - normally I would run a mile with something like that but as I was so tired, I asked her to give me a nod if I was asleep when my name was called. Fortunately I grabbed half an hour before triage but was awake when called. Then the never ending wait after for treatment. The service was excellent despite waiting nearly five hours in total. Not bad.

And the one thing that actually made me feel quite proud really - everybody was kind and considerate to each other - most were wearing a poppy (not that it's a big thing) and everyone was speaking the same language. It was like going back 25 years in time and it was bloody nice despite feeling absolutely dreadful.

No doubt I'll be attacked for my right-wing views and probably called a racist bellend but I imagine A&E departments up and down the country are in a similar state that if you're white, it's not alright.......:down:
So it appears that your problem isn't recognising faces but recognising the question.
 










Half Time Pies

Well-known member
Sep 7, 2003
1,593
Brighton
I was stuck in one of the large london tube station lifts with someone who I was 80% certain was an ex-girlfriend! She was looking at me but because I couldn't be 100% sure it was her, and we were in a confined space with lots of people, I panicked, blanked her and walked off quickly as soon as the lift doors opened. It was about 10/15 years after we broke up but I was with her for a couple of years! She must have thought I was being a right arrogant prick!
 


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