Do you have any ideas as to why this self-highlight is the standard? Any psychological/perception reasons?
Discussion
Good question! I don’t really know. Maybe the feeling of you being the center of your word 😂 maybe it feels right to check how you replied to someone?
I don’t see any specific reason for it other than it just feels right - but that could be due to a pattern forming from other app usage that seem to do it that way too.
Maybe conversations beg for responses and your mind is checking to see if you’ve filled that gap and responded. There’s a psychological principle by some name that I’ve been calling need-to-complete, perhaps your brain is checking to see if you “completed” the conversational ask? Just a theory. Doesn’t explain the fact that not all responses require a response…
Maybe this comment by nostr:npub149p5act9a5qm9p47elp8w8h3wpwn2d7s2xecw2ygnrxqp4wgsklq9g722q could be a good clue:
> [Users] use their own messages more than anything else as reference points to know where they are in the conversation.
This reinforces the sense of security and stability that we all seek.
What does security and stability mean in the context of a conversation? Perhaps it’s the responsibility of fulfilling your part of the social contract that is the conversation- the need to complete.
I was thinking about something beyond the conversation utility, maybe more related to the ego.
The "complete" theory is interesting, but in one-on-one chats, we usually focus on the last messages to check if the social contract has been fulfilled, and in groups, we leverage notifications.