"I just assumed everyone had it, you know that little narrator in your head who talks you through your decisions, who questions your actions, who reflects on your failures and asks, “Why did I do that?” But here’s the data: over 75% of people report little to no inner dialogue at all. Nothing. No voice. No back-and-forth. No internal monologue steering the ship. Like wtf...
They think in pictures, emotions, or gut instincts. They "just know" things without verbalizing them internally. That sounds harmless per se, until you realize what’s missing. Self-awareness. Moral calibration. Inner correction. Long-term introspection. All of it hinges on the ability to hold a conversation with yourself...you know...to weigh options, rehearse scenarios, argue with your own thoughts. Take that away, and what’s left is not a philosopher… it’s a refined animal in a human body. Sorry 75%.
I honestly don't think we're studying this seriously enough. Psychologists dismiss it as “neurodiversity,” as if it’s just a quirk. But what if it’s more than that? What if we’re looking at a fundamental divide in human consciousness... almost like a split between narrative beings and reactive shells? Sorry again.
Between those who live with an inner world… and those who just follow the script handed to them by instinct and media?... Sound familiar?
Think about what this explains. Why people are so easy to manipulate. Why mass movements work. Why so few stop to question anything. Because if there’s no voice inside, there’s nothing to say “Hold on. Is this right?” There’s no inner witness. No friction. Just impressions, feelings, and the next dopamine hit. I know this will be controversial...but these are the studies conclusions.
I'm assuming the silence in others is just quiet, not absence. But what if most of the world is sleepwalking, not because they’re unwilling… but because they’re literally unequipped to narrate their own story? If that's true, everything we know about agency, ethics, and consciousness needs to be rewritten."
https://x.com/JasonWilde108/status/1939466323479634036
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810008000342?via%3Dihub
OMG, this exact conversation was had around the table on Christmas. The example I chose? An apple. Line drawing to 3D with scent, etc etc. They couldn't do it. What still has me shaken is that they can't picture the face of a loved one. No image of their wife, parents, siblings, or grandparents. Nothing. Frankly, it was unsettling.
Crazy right? People can't even remember their family members faces in their minds anymore. I think it's also getting worse due to the overuse of technology. We have pictures of our families on our phones we can always look at, so why bother remembering in our minds?
I think people who are artistic or creative have an easier time imaging things in the mind, because that's where our creativity and ideas for art comes from. This is probably why I can 3D image things, objects, people, or places in my head, and easily draw them just from memory. Like you said, it's unsettling that there's literally nothing going on in other people's heads, not even static, it's just...blank and dark. That's terrifying.
I remember almost everything. Even today in my older age, I could draw the entire floorplan of a house I lived in when I was 3 and 4 years old. I remember riding around from room to room on my tricycle that I got when I was 3.