Reading Minds

How well do you read people?

There were times when I used to be proud of my ability to understand people easily. Often I tried to read the different layers of meaning that make up a person and what they say or do, by analyzing their expressions, the way they used words and gestures, and how they reacted to particular situations. Their dressing, tastes and the choices that they made were other important clues. Let me tell you, it made me feel really powerful and I loved understanding people in ways many around me "did not care to" ( I wouldn't say "couldn't do", because I think anyone can do it given they are interested enough.). Now, there's no saying whether I understood them correctly or not, but many have felt that I knew about them more than others did, which pointed to the fact that I was not too far from the right interpretations. Many also started sharing their problems with me because they felt that I already knew a lot about them, and hence would be able to listen to them and understand them better.

It's only when the person opens himself/herself to you that you can go onto the next stage - 'reading of mind'. There are psychological experts who can read the minds of strangers (often their patients) through interactions, but they too have to undergo many sessions before any conclusive statements or inferences can be drawn. So for an ordinary person like me, I need to be acquainted with a person, at least to some extent before I could start understanding him/her. Reading the person's mind, and knowing that he/she is actually indicating 'this' by saying 'that' or doing 'this' because of 'that' at the moment of interaction or activity is a very complicated exercise and requires a certain level of familiarity to be already established between them.

As of now, I actually am not all sure about whether I understand people or not. And there is a definite reason for this. Most of the interactions in today's world takes place through virtual media and we miss those many factors which can aid us in understanding/reading people. Emoticons are merely masks, and there are no gestures, no voice modulation, and no impulsive and immediate reaction to things. It's all thought out and typed. 

How do we get to know each other in this world where the virtual screen has become a greater and stronger wall of separation and hiding than even brick or iron walls?? Maybe one day, we'll find a way to break through this wall too, and succeed in analyzing people instead of generalizing them. 



(Image taken from https://iaminterface.com/minds/)