(rant) Exhausting brain fog replies

[rhythmsoundmotion]

I am not saying anybody should do anything.
I find that my daily walks around the neighborhood are helpful if I try to notice all the changes around me. I focus on the birds I see, the new flowers I see, the butterflies, dragonflies, and squirrels. I don't know if it is engaging my mind in something cozy and trivial, or challenging my perceptiveness, that is effective.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I am not saying anybody should do anything.
I find that my daily walks around the neighborhood are helpful if I try to notice all the changes around me. I focus on the birds I see, the new flowers I see, the butterflies, dragonflies, and squirrels. I don't know if it is engaging my mind in something cozy and trivial, or challenging my perceptiveness, that is effective.

David Foster Wallace gave a memorable speech in which he said we should basically do this same thing when we see people acting in a way that we find upsetting. Try to come up with an empathetic reason that someone is, say, driving too slow on the highway, or cut in front of the checkout line, or posted a low-effort meme into a thread. We honestly have no idea why others act the way they do in real life- online it's even more difficult to tell. So David Foster Wallace challenges us to use our mind muscles to come up with an empathetic, rather than critical, explanation.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am getting frustrated/concerned with what feels like replies written from brain-fogged individuals.

Slap them on ignore and move on. Not everyone is worth having a conversation with. If you're consistently getting chatbot-level responses from them, it can often be a waste of your precious hours on Earth to try and get something more substantive out of the discussion.

 

[payn]

David Foster Wallace gave a memorable speech in which he said we should basically do this same thing when we see people acting in a way that we find upsetting. Try to come up with an empathetic reason that someone is, say, driving too slow on the highway, or cut in front of the checkout line, or posted a low-effort meme into a thread. We honestly have no idea why others act the way they do in real life- online it's even more difficult to tell. So David Foster Wallace challenges us to use our mind muscles to come up with an empathetic, rather than critical, explanation.

Definitely a more tactful approach. A lot of times folks just dont want to meet in the middle or find common ground. Culturally, things have developed in a positions over interests mindset.

 

[Willie the Duck]

So maybe I am seeing the symptoms of dementia everywhere?

I suspect that in most cases it is factors other than genuine cognitive impairment.

Primarily, a lot of people are reading this board on their phones on lunch breaks, or similar situations. This can lead to rushed reading, and rushed responses. This leads to a lot of instances of people addressing the point they mistakenly* think someone else made, and do so in a way that is less coherent and communicative than they thought it was/intended it to be.
*or that person doesn't realize that the point they made wasn't the one they thought they did. Or there is ambiguity.

 

[Morrus]

What would be the cure for this kind of brain fogged thinking?
-Awareness seems ineffective. Or people hear about these issues, agree that it is happening, and then act the same way.
-Confronting people seems ineffective. It's seen as an attack and not an observation.
-Presenting material that stretches seems ineffective. They will disengage and go back to their comfort zone.

I would suggest that 'diagnosing' others who don't engage with your content the way you want them to as cognitively deficient is not going to get you very far. Maybe your posts just aren't that interesting to them?

 

[rhythmsoundmotion]

I would suggest that 'diagnosing' others who don't engage with your content the way you want them to as cognitively deficient is not going to get you very far. Maybe your posts just aren't that interesting to them?

I was unclear that my context had changed to engaging with friends and colleagues with the cognitive overload symptoms discussed in the thread. I apologize that it seemed that I wanted to confront people on this forum.

 

[Deset Gled]

I suspect that in most cases it is factors other than genuine cognitive impairment.

Primarily, a lot of people are reading this board on their phones on lunch breaks, or similar situations. This can lead to rushed reading, and rushed responses. This leads to a lot of instances of people addressing the point they mistakenly* think someone else made, and do so in a way that is less coherent and communicative than they thought it was/intended it to be.
*or that person doesn't realize that the point they made wasn't the one they thought they did. Or there is ambiguity.

I'm also pretty sure there are people who sometimes post drunk. Not that this is against any rules, of course. And would be completely unenforceable anyway. I may be guilty of this myself on occasion.

But I am suspicious that there may be posters who actually have a drinking (or similar) problem, and drunk post regularly. Given the size of the community, it's practically statistically guaranteed that there's at least a few people around with addiction issues. Unfortunately, I don't think there's really anything to be done about it. An internet forum is not the proper venue for an intervention. Report posts that actually break the rules, ignore people that annoy you. So it goes.

 

[payn]

I'm also pretty sure there are people who sometimes post drunk. Not that this is against any rules, of course. And would be completely unenforceable anyway. I may be guilty of this myself on occasion.

But I am suspicious that there may be posters who actually have a drinking (or similar) problem, and drunk post regularly. Given the size of the community, it's practically statistically guaranteed that there's at least a few people around with addiction issues. Unfortunately, I don't think there's really anything to be done about it. An internet forum is not the proper venue for an intervention. Report posts that actually break the rules, ignore people that annoy you. So it goes.

 

[Umbran]

I am getting frustrated/concerned with what feels like replies written from brain-fogged individuals.

I am going to push back on the whole "brain-fog" descriptor.

One of the more common forms of insulting posts is, "If you don't agree with me, you have some form of cognitive impairment." And... that's kind of what you seem to be saying here.