Name: Can Blind People Feel People Staring At Them?
Uploaded: 2018-01-24T04:30:31.000Z
Duration: 6 min 20 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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[music plays]
Here's a fascinating question I get a lot.

Does it bother me that I don't know if anyone is watching me

or staring at me. It's funny when I walk around with my

cane, I do, I feel like everybody is watching me.

I feel like if there are people around they are watching me. And simply because

there's not a lot of blind people around and for a lot of people

I might be the first time they've ever seen one.

are watching me a lot. And if the roles were reversed

and I had never seen a blind person walking with cane, you better believe I'd

be watching. I don't think that's rude but I think

it's just simple curiosity more than anything. Now, this is the thing,

I don't know if I understand the difference between watching and staring.

I know that staring is a bit more rude than watching.

Parents always say, "Don't stare... that's not polite, don't stare."

But what's the difference between staring and watching. I would think

that to watch something is okay but to stare

means your eyes are wide open and you're just concentrating on

this one thing and you're just transfixed if you will.

I imagine people do both to me. I think people are looking at me

because I'm walking with a white cane. I think people are looking because I'm not quite

Or maybe I'm about to walk into something. Now, do I

notice it in a restaurant for example, if I'm sitting there eating?

I might not notice that. Let's say I'm in a place

by myself. I'm at a booth alone, okay. And I'm having

a little lunch and if there's somebody staring at me from

two - three tables away I have no idea. But if I'm with somebody

and we're having lunch together and then afterward we're talking

and he says, "You know, the person was staring at you

for the entire time and it made me uncomfortable."

[music plays]
A part of this question is about

Like I've heard people say that they're burning a hole in the back of my head from

looking at me so much, right. But I think that's a sighted thing.

because I don't know what that is. How could I know?

It's got to be a sighted thing. I don't think I've ever felt eyes on me

before. I don't think I've ever been in a situation

where I've been like, [gasp] "I know everybody is watching me."

You know, staring at me. I always assume that

because I'm different and because people have never seen it

and they want to see if I can make it and all that stuff.

Now, if I was walking around and there were 20 hands on me

I'd feel that. I know what that would be like.

You know, people trying to stop me and push me and pull me and the whole thing.

[music plays]
When there are sighted people around,

I'm not quite sure who's watching all the time, you know,

so I have to be careful. So for example, if somebody comes over, if I live with

somebody or that kind of thing. I'm afraid to

maybe pick my teeth in front of somebody right

because I don't know if they're going to see that, or touch my nose

You know... I never know. And I understand that

but are you going to see this little moment. I never quite know.

But I'm very self conscious when there's sighted people around unless

you're in another room. If we're yelling across the house to each other, then I know

that things are cool and I could do whatever I have to do.

And you can't see it, but in the same room...

might goof it up. Where I'll be talking to somebody and they're

out of the room but I guess they're straight ahead and they can still see into

the room. Or, the other way around. You know, that they're

around a corner and I think, "well, you sound so close. You should be

able to see this." But I don't understand that you can't see around the corner.

that happens when I'm around sighted people is I can't tell what they're doing

all the time. If I just start to talk to somebody and they don't

respond I'm going, "I know you're still here."

"Oh, yeah, you might be on your phone or something like that."

It happens all the time. I never quite know what

sighted people are doing. There are times when I'll be talking to somebody

and maybe they get distracted or have to go away

for a quick second while I'm talking to them and I'm just sitting there talking going,

"Hello. [gasp] Oh, you really did leave."

And that's a time where I thought they were right there looking at me.

Totally engaged in what I had to say. And they got distracted

and had to leave. Isn't it funny. I'm talking about sighted

people watching me and then sighted people not even looking.

[music plays]
Just because I'm blind people think that I

can't really stare at somebody, right, but I do.

It's not staring with my eyes, but you better believe

I'm checking people out. I listen to conversations.

I just start to zero in on a conversation. For example,

if we're having lunch or something like that. And there's somebody at the next table talking about

something interesting, I am all in. And I'm transfixed

just like you would be with your eyes if you were watching somebody.

You know, people are like, "Tommy, what are doing?" "Shh, they're talking

about something cool over here. Hang on a second."

I love that so I'm guilty of it too. And this is why

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Can Blind People Feel People Staring At Them?

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