We’ve all been there - that moment when you’re walking down a hallway and see someone but can’t for the life of you remember their name. Of course, to make you feel even guiltier, they call out an energetic “hi (insert your name here)!”. This forgetting of another person’s name is not an abnormality, yet there are people who are “face blind”. In this case, people cannot recognize a familiar person’s face - someone even as familiar as a family member or significant other. Can you imagine walking out of kindergarten after your first day of school, and not being able to recognize your own mother? (To be fair, I nearly walked home with a lady I mistook for my mother after the first day of kindergarten). Not all people who have facial blindness, also known as prosopagnosia, are affected to this extreme; however, many people do live in a state where they recognize people more by the context of the situation or a voice as opposed to recognizing someone by their face.
How would you distinguish a friend from a random person if you had to focus on something other than their face? People living with prosopagnosia often rely on people’s haircuts, or the way in which they walk to know a friend from a stranger. For a moment, let’s consider how the world would be if we all had to recognize people by their haircuts. Yikes. Do you know how many girls have long hair? How many guys now have man buns? That would not go over well. So let’s consider the other option - having to recognize someone based on the way that they walk. Now this could be easier… if they were the only person in the room and the room was completely quiet. I would say that I have a pretty good ear at knowing when one of my brothers are walking down the stairs versus when my mom walks down the stairs. I can even distinguish each brother’s footsteps - my twin (yes he exists) has ankles that always click when he walks, and the other two have very heavy footsteps. Though I may feel pretty confident with my own family, in a hallway full of people there would be no way for me to tell one person from the other based on footsteps.
So what’s my point in all of this? First off, that prosopagnosia exists! Many of us may have trouble remembering people's names, but facial blindness goes beyond that. Also, we should all be more observant of our surroundings, specifically with a person’s mannerisms. I don’t expect you to grasp every little nuance of someone’s character; however, it is cool to know one distinguishing feature about a person apart from their face. So next time you’re with a friend, watch their movements and see if you notice any interesting quirks that make them unique. They might always flip their hair a certain way, or use their hands a lot whenever they talk - whatever it is, if you can distinguish them by that feature then all the more props to you. You’ve now become not only a better friend, but also a more observant person.
