Human interaction

We humans have found interesting new ways of communicating with each other. The virtual ways have to a large extent replaced the real thing. Yet, was the real thing truly remarkable?! Was the face to face interaction between people truly effective?! I came across the studies of a Finnish professor; Oslo Wiio. His rules of human interaction read like Murphy’s law. But the most remarkable of all was the insight that when two people are having a conversation, often considered the ultimate thing, actually six are having that conversation. Yep. Six!. Count with Oslo:

1. who you think you are
2. who you think the other person is
3. who you think the other person thinks you are
4. who the other person thinks he/she is
5. who the other person thinks you are
6. who the other person thinks you think he/she is

Knowing this and the simple fact that our average span of attention is only 8.25 seconds, it is no coincidence that there is so much misunderstanding going on.