Fifty degrees

When I was a kid I had a whole range of people in the neighbourhood that I used to drop in on, from my mates to random older people that I had befriended.

I used to get milk and biscuits from a lovely old aboriginal woman around the corner. I suppose she got random yarns from me and a little company. I got a lot more.

She taught me a lot about aboriginal culture including the fact that eye contact can be offensive to Australian indigenous people.

You will know if eye contact is offensive by the amount of, or lack of eye contact you are getting back.

It’s best to find some bloody interesting stain on the wall at an angle that leaves your correspondent in your peripheral vision. About 50 degrees off American.

I suspect that chatting this way without direct visual eye contact activates a different part of the brain.

It makes one concentrate on exactly what’s being said. Or not, if you go into a trance, which is easier to do without eye contact.

Either way, you get something different out of such a conversation. Especially if it’s introductory small talk which is designed to elucidate the credentials of the participants.