How do you handle eye contact?

Question

I seem to have trouble with eye contact in some cases and I have had this problem naturally my whole life. The only time I make solid eye contact is when I am attracted to someone. Otherwise, I tend to glance into their face on and off for short periods(like 2 secs). Sometimes I feel like overt eye contact can be intimidating to the other person and sometimes I just feel awkward. Any body else experience this?

Answer 1

in my culture we  do the same...'never look anyone in the eye unless you are interested in them"...

Answer 2

Yes. It is awkward at times. When i was in high school, a teacher told me he found it annoying that I looked at his mouth when he was speaking to me. He said it was rude. (??!!).

In my experience, if you do not look into people's eyes, they think you are lying to them.

TRY to make eye contact w/ people. It may also appear to others that you are insincere (spelling?)

Answer 3

I find it ok when a person is talking to me or I talk to the person to hold eye contact. you can look elsewhere on occasion.. you don't have to stare.. I am not too comfortable if I am on a train and people opposite me hold eye contact with me without talking to me.. but look at the bridge of the nose of the person instead of in their eyes. they won't know the difference and you will feel better.. It's just polite to have eye contact when talking or listening otherwise the other person thinks you  don't care,. you may look away but you need to give the appearance to be interested so you need to at least look at the bridge of the persons nose.. and actively listen to what they say.. and when you talk to someone you look at them also.. even if you look again at the bridge of their nose.. xx

Answer 4

I agree with you

Direct and maintained eye contact is not only overrated, but it is uncomfortable, annoying, and sometimes dowright creepy!

Have you ever met someone who probably was trained to think that eye contact is "important" and must be maintained at all times, and they just look directly in your eyes and never blink and just keep STARING at you?

Scary stuff

I don't even try anymore. I give a polite look here and there, but I find no need to lock into someone's pupils to appear as they want me to be

Answer 5

Yeaa, I know what you mean.

Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and feel awkward though. :/

Answer 6

i really have no idea why, but i like never make eye contact with people when i'm talking to them. i'm not sure if i just dont feel comfortable with it or what, but if i do make eye contact then it's only for like a few seconds at a time.

Answer 7

Yes I think at times everybody feels akward looking into peoples eyes because sometimes theres that weird silence and your just staring at eachother but you can always focus on something like in between there eyes that way it appears you are looking them into the eyes but really you arent so it saves the akwardness

Answer 8

Oh, that's why some people do that.

I just thought they were being rude.

Answer 9

Yeah, its weird cause the other person might think your'e staring at him/her. But someone taught me a trick, dont concentrate on the eyes you can look at somewhere in the forehead.  

Answer 10

I'm like that as well.

If I know them well, It doesn't really happen, but people I really like, or people I don't know... I just can't look them in the eyes, and try to stare between them if they are talking to me, or gaze at something in the distance, lmao.

:D

Answer 11

I do know what you mean. I think alot of our feelings about eye contact are related to our perception of the person we're looking at, our confidence level, the amount of honesty in our words, and our perception of how that person sees us.

It's weird when you think about it- if so many of us are not into eye-contact in the old-fashioned "look em in the eyes" way then why is so much emphasis placed on it?

Eye contact is used as an intimidation and evaluation tool by enforcement agencies-- it can tell you alot about yourself or someone else but I do think that not every person that avoids eye contact is a liar or somehow dishonest or insecure- some days I just simply don't feel like making eye contact because I'm not feeling particularly friendly or conversational... and yes, you could end up in a fight making and maintaining eye contact with the wrong person so it is an awkward thing!

Also my last tidbit-- I think life is awkward!!  

Answer 12

yeah i have that too like i wont even look my mom straight in the eye, most the time ppl cant tell unless theyre really close to me

Answer 13

I think everyone does that, looks away now and again.  If you stared at the other person all the time it would be creepy.