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LaDamaX · 10 answers · 7mo

Why do you think many of us feel cringy-worthy when we see or hear ourselves on video? Is it because the vision that we have of ourselves doesn’t match what we see/hear?

When we see and hear others we get acquainted to them and their individual way. They appear not too different usually from everybody else. We recognise the individual styles and form an image of them in our mind. But we do not get acquainted with ourselves in the same way and we do not see us from outside and we do not see our individuality like we see that of others. Hence our mind forms a different image of ourselves. When experiencing ourselves in video and audio we start the process anew. But it clashes with the already existing image we have. The parameters of self evaluating from introspection differ a lot from those when we do evaluate external persons. So our internal and external face in comparison both look distorted and unreal and alien. The cringy comes from finding that our expectations due to different sets of parameters cover unexpected ugliness, unexpected distortions and unexpected quirks while we lived so far in oblivion that we move like elegant ballerinas only to find out we do stomp according to our comparison. Also we judge ourselves much harsher and more cruel than others do it. We do that because we feel let down and mislead and betrayed by our self made image. But that image is also done by a mirror like the other image one. Only mirrors are different. Who can say which is closer to reality?

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