So, i had just seen a clip of a kid spinning out of control in a bumper car kind of arena with the caption (me, trying to tackle life) which made me laugh. The next post said, "In one word describe how you feel right now".
The first answer was "groggy".
The second answer was "Sad doesn't cut it, my 38 year old son passed away a month ago massive heart attack he was at the gym he had lost a lot of weight and was looking after himself just devastated".
ALL the rest of the visible posts were in response to the second answer.
Of course my first response was also sadness - way to bring me down after laughing at the previous one!
And then i realized how it got hijacked because she didn't follow the "rule" set forth - ONE WORD, no explanations.
But, the reason it struck me was because i had just been thinking about how conversations get hijacked, generally by innocent comments made by listeners, and i wondered how often i do it myself.
Listening to the conversation flow at work has made me think of this but i also hear it at church. (The two places i generally hear conversations!) Someone will start a story about what happened to them and another person will jump in with a "oh! something like that happened to me when.....". And off they go with their story, not meaning to stop the first person but so caught up in the telling that they forget the first person had started and not finished their story. (I hope i'm making sense!) The first person may pick it back up or the conversation may change course at that point or the first person forgets what they were going to say anyway!
I've been interested in listening to conversations and how they change subjects for years. I'd like to record a few and analyze them!
I know i do it but i'm also conscious of it so try to stop and get back to the original speaker quickly. What about you?