a list of questions to bother my medical-student brother with:
1. What are the neurological impulses that signify "the meeting of eyes"?
a. "Eye contact" surely cannot be quantified by a ray of light reflecting off the other party's irises and bouncing into our own optical nerve, right? Otherwise, "eye contact" would be considered valid in scenarios with one-way glass or sunglasses.
2. There must be some sort of trigger mechanism that registers the realization: "ah that person has met my eyes".
a.To elaborate, there is a difference between looking at someone's eyes, and meeting someone's eyes. For example, if an optometrist is examining my eyes through an optical instrument, I can sense that their eyes are focused on my eyes. But since I cannot see the optometrist's own eyes, the eye connection is unidirectional and hence the act of "eye contact" did not occur.
3. To describe my understanding of "eye contact" as succinctly as possible:
a. Both parties focus their line of sight on each other's eyes.
b. There is a mutual acknowledgement that the other party knows they are being watched as well.
4. Eye contact is an essential tool of nonverbal communication among most creatures and I've honestly been pondering this question for a few years now, ever since I've developed the habit of observing strangers through their reflections on the subway windows.
a. Empirically, I have seen (somewhat awkwardly) that eye contact can occur through a third-party medium such as a window reflection. Somehow, along the rays of light from my eyes to the glass to the stranger's eyes, there is the jolt: "Aha. I've been caught spying".
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