Chatting About Ourselves

A new study released by Harvard University last week shows that people love to talk about themselves.   In fact 40% of our everyday speech is devoted to this alone.   The results also showed that the brain lights up when we practice self-disclosure, the same as it does for money or food.

Which means that a fat bank account and a bag of Doritos gives us the same pleasure as yakking.  Is this crazy or what?

I wondered about this as I was about to devote my entire blog to my infant grandson, when I realized that that would give me tons of pleasure, but nothing for you.   You’d rather converse about your own family first.

Well, isn’t that why we have Facebook?  We post pictures of our vacations, parties, kids, and if we like it, we click thumbs up.   Mark Zuckerberg sized us up correctly, and today he's a billionaire because of it.

Mark Zuckerberg

 This got me thinking about the state of our obesity, a national disaster already in the works.  If conversing about ourselves affords the same pleasure as food, why hasn’t someone come up with an unbeatable diet where a person’s offered low fat meals while sitting with a stranger who listens to our life’s story and everyday complaints.

In a few short months everyone will look like runway models, and Dr. Oz won't have to worry about our fat thighs or cardiac arrests.   Diabetes 2 will melt away like a snowman in Florida.

And that's when I realized the small but simple problem.   If everyone’s talking, who’s gonna sit back and listen?    

  

This is the perfect time to order coma induced patients back on the job.  All they have to do is lie there and absorb the chatter.   You can tell them anything, and they won't say a word.  It's amazing that talking about ourselves is so addictive.   I know for a fact that's why people write blogs.   They pretend they're discussing worldly topics when in fact they're hiding their own opinions and bragging about themselves.  The nerve of those imposters!

  

By the way, did I tell you my grandson’s a genius?  Let me explain…