Hello World,
I have quite a
few things to share with you but before I could put things together my brain got
ambushed by what I would like to term as “Left-Right Confusion.” This has been
gently frying my cerebrum, sautéing my brain stem and blanching my spinal cord
and serving the “Nervous System au Freak Sauce” to my thoughts. Before I begin
my rant, click here to download the pdf version (rough draft) of this post.
I am documenting
this 1 year and 3 month long observation of a very weird social behavior of the
people of Chennai, otherwise known as “Chennaite” (by the rest of the world)
and “MadrasKaaran” by the people of Chennai. My observation does include individuals (all
total strangers to me) of both the genders and people from about all walks of
life. I would however make a mention that this observation of mine does not
necessarily conclude that all Chennaites exhibit this weird behavior but in
fact this observation would like to be documented as an indicator of potential
city-wide damage of the friendly communication habits in the future, assuming
this continues and spreads to everyone. I am a Chennaite myself and I love my city and it is that love of my city that has prompted me to document my observation of the phenomenon that I think is seriously detrimental to the long-term well being of my beloved city. My mental GPS always hits a technical
snag or an experimental error while navigating through routes that involves
more than 2 left turns or right turns. So I always stop during my travel and
ask someone on the road about the route to my destination and make sure I am on
the right heading. It is this habit of mine that gave me the fantastic
opportunity to meet and talk to different individuals in Chennai among whom I
noticed this weird element of communication that I would like to analyze today.
Thanks to all those who were generous enough to help me with the directions
during these instances.
It is an
internationally known and followed yet unwritten code for telling directions
that calls for using hand signals and gestures to explain the route to someone
who asks for one. The idea is usually to help the traveler/commuter to
understand and remember the route to his/her destination. For those who have
trouble understanding this please look at the pictures given below and thrust
your face into the palm of your hand for not understanding it before. ;)
I don’t own the
images shown above and here are the reference links for these:
http://www.iheartjapan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/directions.jpg
http://media.makeadare.com/img/57fac2944/image_4e4e9bba81.jpg
Observation
When I stop and
ask someone on the road about the way to get to a specific spot in the city,
the person almost always used his/her right
hand to point to the right and
said “…take the left….” (When the
actual direction was indeed the right turn, as the hand signal had conveyed).
Non-Verbal Rocks!!! ;)
Boundary Conditions and Isometricity
Why on earth
would anyone with everything working right use the right hand to point to the
right and ask me to take that left?
If the intended
subject of the communication is actually “The Right,” why is “Left” being used
verbally?
From a
communication standpoint, the non-verbal communication is substantiated with
the verbal declaration of what is being conveyed non-verbally, except the fact
that the non-verbal and verbal communication elements completely contradict
each other, rendering the purpose of the communication deviate away from the
otherwise presumed purpose of helping the receiver receive and process the
information effectively.
Our scope right
here would be limited to the “Why?” element alone and discuss the possible
reasons that we may identify.
Possible Reasons
1.
The person may be suffering from a
neuro-developmental disorder namely Gerstmann’s Syndrome which has left-right
disorientation as an indicative symptom. There may be other neuro-developmental
disorders which may cause left-right disorientation and therefore let’s just
stick with “Neuro-Developmental Disorder” and maintain things in the simpler
sense.
2.
The person is already occupied mentally with
something else that he/she could not possibly make out the connection between
what he/she is intending to say and what he/she is actually saying (let alone
the hand gesture).
3.
The person is contradicting his/her non-verbal
communication with his/her verbal explanation on purpose, where the intention
is to confuse or challenge the listener and let the listener struggle to
interpret the actual message being conveyed.
4.
All the other million possible reasons put
together and royally ignored due to their state of insignificance with respect
to this post. ;)
Interpretation
I am no
psychologist and this post is not diagnostic in nature and therefore I just
have to waive the possibility of the neuro-developmental disorder. Even if I
were to possess such intellect, the seconds-long conversation about simple
directions may not have served as a suitable and comprehensive diagnostic tool.
I guess the concerned individuals can recall how frequently they confuse right
with left and I sincerely hope it does not put them in an alarm situation.
As for the
“occupied-with-something-else” reason, why would someone with real working
senses choose to involve in a communication while they are mentally occupied
with something else (I mean to an extent where one cannot realize that they are
saying something that is contradicting what they enacting simultaneously)?
Assuming the person is occupied with something else and then proceeds to speak
to someone, it would only mean that their brain would have cordoned off a
minute section of itself for the conversation. But we must consider the fact
that we are, in the end, only human and it is normal to confuse the left with
right. The question however is that, what are the chances that almost everyone
that I asked for directions might have been mentally occupied with something
else, over a period of 1 year and 3 months?
It has to be mentioned that there were a few instances where the
generous minds correctly mentioned the route to my destination without
confusing left with right but these are clearly outliers that have to be gently
ignored. Irrespective of one’s state of being “mentally occupied with something
else,” is it not normal brain function to analyze what has to be conveyed prior
to actually conveying it in any form of communication? We cannot demand the
analysis of the “correctness” of the message since that would mandate a
philosophical bent entirely based on idealism. We can however demand the
analysis of the “consistency” of the message conveyed in verbal and non-verbal
formats. In other words, one can verify their words and actions to make them
consistent with each other. When the right hand is used to point to the right,
the logical verbal form of the message would include a “right” and definitely
not a “left.” I am sure even a dead duck would nod in agreement to this idea.
The brain
chooses to listen to a question, process an answer and deliver it non-verbally
and verbally, except the verbal part would completely walk up and down the ass
of the non-verbal part which by some mysterious ways is attributed to the fact
that the brain was occupied with something else. How the friggety frat is this
even plausible? More than that how come this happens almost every time I ask
someone for directions? Honestly, this analysis just needs more information
which, as for the moment, is unavailable to me because I have no freakin idea
about it.
As for the
reason of “purposefully distorting information” during any communication, I
have to say it is a rather interesting one to look at, for this really tells a
tale about “short-span communications” between complete strangers in the Big
City Ecosystem. I go on long rides on my motorcycle and most of the spots I
ride through are comparatively rural. I ask for directions the same way I do in
my city and I never had anyone confuse left with right or just threw random
directions at me and let me figure it out. In fact the rural folk had the
generosity to explain the route to me very clearly and most of them asked me if
I had got it right. I thank them for their generosity to spare their time for
me and even more, their cultural dominance over the city-dwellers in the
effective communications context. The city-folk too are generous but not as
proficient as the country folk when it comes to effective communication.
Now why would
someone deliberately distort information during a communication and let the
listener struggle to interpret the right thing? Why would someone say “left”
when they are actually meaning “right” just because they want to be discreet to
the listener and impose a sense of “nothing-is-free” when the nature of the
conversation is not argumentative? In fact it is a simple case of explaining
the directions to some lost traveler who has asked for directions. The very
intent of such distortion is an indication of an element of misanthropy in a
person’s socio-psychological construct. In other words, if the person
deliberately succumbs to a self-imposed question of “Why should I be very clear
with my communication?” and eventually distorts the messages conveyed, then it
indicates a possibility of dust and rust in the top deck. If this is not the
case, then what kind of Marijuana dipped in salsa causes someone to point to
the right with their right hand and deliberately say “Left”?????? I am sure
such a person would be no stranger to blue elephants in baggy pants playing
banjos.
Concluding this
rant, I would like to mention that I sincerely hope the right-left confusion
does not spread like an epidemic. Whatever may be the reason, communicating
effectively is a symbol of civilization and a platform for portraying one’s
culture in terms of social behavior. While we are human and are bound to be
occasional victims of mal-functioning perceptual and motor skills, it is a
positive thing to keep attempting to communicate effectively and at times, help
lost travelers find their way to the destinations of their choice.
It is
interesting to note that there has been considerable academic research in the
Left-Right Orientation topic. Find below the link to an online experiment
created by Dr. Eric H. Chudler, who is the Executive Director of Center for
Sensorimotor Neural Engineering and a Research Associate Professor in the Dept.
of Bio-Engineering at University of Washington:
Anyone can put themselves through this test to find out to what extent they confuse the
directions in their mind. I put myself through it and the results show that I
fall under the 11% of the total responders so far who show a difference of 4-6
seconds between the two tests. Not too shabby… ;)
For those of you
who might love to indulge themselves in something additional related to this
topic, here are the links:
Next time you
tell directions to someone, please make sure you say what you think or intend
to say and make sure the other person has understood it. If we decide to take
the pain of helping someone, let’s just do it in a complete sense and let
fundamental physics live in peace. It is always wonderful to let Verbal and
Non-Verbal communications stay on the same team.
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On a very different note [a shameless plug], if you are interested in unique tamil short films, feel free to visit https://www.summamovies.com/. I couldn't tolerate the mass masala entertainers anymore and decided I will do my best to produce content with substance. I have a long a way to go as a producer and a start-up founder, but I am glad our journey has begun. I look forward to your support. Each film on our site costs INR 15. Thanks!!!
Regards,
