We have only had speech for seventy thousand years. That is not very long. Before then, you and I had to get along without using words. We had to create families, raise children, get on with our partner, and get on with the remainder of the tribe without words. We used smiles and nods. In polite society, we largely ignore the messages in the smile. We ignore the emotions occurring in interactions. We ignore this so much that we cannot interpret the messages in the smile. We don’t notice the emotions involved in interactions. We ignore it so much that we don’t even recognize that messages and emotions are being transmitted. Recognising and reading these emotions make life more exciting.

Let us start with a simple random meme. What is the message and what is the emotion.

You should be able to detect ‘contentment’. Some will detect more elements. Part of the ‘contentment’ is from the touching of the two heads, but you may see it in their demeanour. Have eanother look. Have a long look.

Here is on that will have a clear message to all of us. But some will read more into the image than others.

Yet again, stare at the picture for a good while. Puzzle what you see in each face. The two babies are clearly communicating. They are only using giggles and faces and they are clearly enjoying the interaction. Look away from the picture and look again focusing on the second child. The messages are interpreted by our ‘reptile brain’, also known as our sub-conscious, in the first half second of the look. Your reptile brain does not communicate directly with your ‘neocortex’ logical brain. Your sub-conscious may recognize the messages but the information is not transferred to the neocortex logical brain. You tend only to get a ‘feeling’. If you are thinking logically, you wont ‘get’ the feeling.

Let’s try a joke or two to get you in the smile mode.

I am hoping the humour will make you more able to intrpret the smiles. Try this one.