this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
75 points (84.4% liked)

Showerthoughts

30511 readers
766 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted, clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts: 1

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
    • If you feel strongly that you want politics back, please volunteer as a mod.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
75
Eyes are freaky af (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just stared into a lemurs eyes for half a minute aparently (that felt like an hour) and it freaked me tf out. Since been staring into peoples eyes or animals eyes and its consistently weird and freaky no matter what. Also it feels like my conciousness is behind my eyes and maybe thats why they say eyes are the window to the soul.

Noone may ask what I took or how much

top 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Animals often avoid eye contact, it's considered rude. Humans are a very touchy-talky-looky species. So yeah, it's freaky. I used to think I suffer from face-blindness (forgot the fancy name of it), then it occurred to me that I just straight up forget/avoid to look into people's eyes so I never even see their faces. Now I sometimes try to make a conscious effort to look at people's eyes - but how long is even appropriate?

Your story of the lemur reminds of staring into the eyes of a genet for probably about a century during a somewhat substance-enhanced camping trip. Can't say I was freaked out, rather honoured by the animal deciding to hang out with me for a while?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A Genet? That's crazy. I didn't know they were still releasing new animals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I had no clue this thing existed till I met it - I did think it was a lemur at first but then I looked it up. They probably arrived in the Iberian peninsula as pets so it's not too surprising that they approach people.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Prosopagnosia (face blindness) is the disorder you are thinking of

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I keep confusing it with pareidolia - seeing faces everywhere.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If you had both, would you see faces everywhere that you never recognize?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yep and the ted chiang short story on that is brilliant.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Odd, i find eye beautiful and mesmerising, i can stare at my cat's eye without feeling the freakiness you felt.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

You’re freaking the cat out though

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Face eggs

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't normally look people in the eyes, but animals? I have no problem with it. The animals do, most of the time. Dogs, though, are like people and like eye contact. And I like looking into their big puppy eyes 🥺

That whole "eyes are the window to the soul" thing only makes sense to me if you include the rest of the face, though; eyes alone don't show expression. The eye brows and cheeks and mouth do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

And I like looking into their big puppy eyes

That is a bit of co-evolution between humans and dogs. While their nose is still their primary sense, their eyes have grown in importance to aid their communication and bonding with us.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

c/im14andthisisdeep

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

What’ll really bake your noodle later on is that the eyes are not near the top of the head. Artists know this: if you look at someone, the eyes will be halfway between the chin and the top of the head.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’ve wondered about this recently too. Eyes are only sensory organs. People can also do fine without them. So why are they so expressive?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Because they are our primary sense.

Humans are social animals and were group hunters. Being able to judge emotions and intentions of another human just by looking into their eyes (silent communication) was a massive evolutionary advantage for us.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Facial expressions are a powerful form of communication. Faces (especially eyes) are so important to communication in the human brain that we see faces in places (pareidolia).

There is also a theory that we evolved to have the whites of our eyes visible so others can see where you're looking and react appropriately (especially in the case of danger).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have any sources on that?

I'm not trying to call you out, I'm interested in reading more.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Sure. It's called the Cooperative Eye Hypothesis.

https://www.livescience.com/4299-eyes-alluring.html

Some researchers have called it into question fairly recently: https://phys.org/news/2021-06-cooperative-eye-hypothesis.html

I learned most of this in psychology classes years ago. There is also a Wikipedia article on the topic. I'm not an expert at all, but I find this stuff fascinating.