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Greetings hello people.read on. Archives
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seeing is believing
I recently watched this documentary about the brain. Whats really interesting about the show is that they link the structure of the brain to what and how you are. Supposedly, there are grey and white matter in our brains. The white matter transfers data to and fro in the brain. This guy is saying that pathological or good liars actually have 23% more white matter than an ordinary person who doesnt lie all that much or who isnt very good at lying. This set me thinking cuz people are always trying to make resolutions, to change things about themselves, make improvements and yada yada... yet here are scientists saying that differences in people or even tendencies in people are related to one's brain structure being a certain way. So a good liar is that way because of the way their brain is formed? So is it still their fault that they lie a lot and lie very well at that! Can they help themselves? The same show says that people who commit crimes like serial killers also have brains that are very different from the average joe's brain. So scientists one day might actually catch murderers before the police will... what does this imply? Do we really have control over our own behaviours, habits, tendencies to do certain things? Personally I used to struggle with making close friends in school since kindergarten. I was always the loner and even when I have friends, they never get really close. I had thought that my constant changing of primary schools and the fact that I am an only child are factors that caused this characteristic of mine. As I grew older I noticed that this was a problem for me. Not only that, I saw how i needed to change and so I did. In JC, I entered with a mindset ready to make friends. I smiled more, tried what I thought would make me more approachable and everything else I could think of. However, I realized that nothing has changed. I still didnt make any really close friends, sure I had more friends because of the changes I made and my friends had very different perceptions of me compared to those from my secondary school but ultimately, nothing much has changed. I am still largely independent, on my own and definitely do not feel a need for me to have a lot of people around me. The only positive thing that came out of this try was probably the fact that I learnt to put across a friendlier image of myself to strangers. Now I wonder if this is something that can be changed or simply the way I am and quite unchangeable due to the way my brain functions. Perhaps the side or part of my brain that is controlling my social skills and the desire for company is different or lesser than that of other people who have many friends and hang around people all the time. A friend recently told me that he thinks there is something to learn from me because I seem to be very independent and he is the exact opposite of me, meaning that he is always having to be around people. He too revealed that he has been struggling with himself since his younger days and he reasons that a very bad relationship experience with a girl in his early days might be responsible for this. Now I wonder if it is possible for him to change this about himself and whether he should even try to. What if it is simply the way his brain is formed... If both of us went for MRIs how would our brains differ from each other? The big question: Just how much control do we have over the way we are? How much can education and nurture do? Or is this more explainable by the theory of fate, things are the way they are simply so. |