My well being depends upon you to engage 'it all'

[Ninurta]

I can't remember where I read it recently, but they are already having problems with teens and some young adults not being able to understand facial cues or body language.
If I am unclear about what context someone is typing online, I do try to ask them.  I also think it is different when someone has been around for a while, and you can read their "style" of writing, to get a better feel than of someone that posts one line and that's it.   At least I tend to judge by that.  Right or wrong I guess.

I read the same thing, and think it had a lot to do with the lack of very young socialization during the covid lockdowns. I wonder if only a couple of years of isolation like that could really have that disproportionate of an effect, but then I consider that, at 5 years old, 2 years of isolation amounts to 40% of your entire life, so there could be something to it. That would equate to, at say 60 years, a 24 year period of isolation, which I'm sure would have an effect on a person.

Folks may, paradoxically, be able to understand me better online than they would be able to in person. In the real world, I have a really thick hillbilly accent which some find difficult to comprehend, but which has stood me in good stead over the years by causing outsiders to underestimate my mental capacity because of the stereotypes they hold concerning hill folk and "rednecks". It has led to some... amusing... moments.

If you SAW me in the real world, you might run the other way before I even got to open my mouth. I'm 6' 2" tall Sort of on the skinny side, with long gray hair half way down my back and a long gray beard that reaches to my belt buckle That some times gets troublesome fastening my pants if I don't recall to first throw it over my shoulder to get it out of the way. I've not always looked this way, but since retirement I find I have no one to impress any more, so I do me, and they can do them.

So, your first impression might be "lookit that crazy old hermit! Don't get too close kids - he might be dangerous!" Even some other hillbillies have that reaction, unless they know me now, or knew me years ago before I left here for the flatlands and returned after 30 years of experiences out there.

My point here is that appearances and nuances of body language are important, but the words are ALSO important - they tend to work together to form a more complete picture that neither, by themselves, can fully articulate.

A secondary point is that one has to get beneath the skin to ever truly understand a real live human being. Lots of folks are unwilling to invest that kind of time, and I think it may be getting worse in the digital age.

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