Have you ever been ignored?

People are chatting about something, you interject. In a loud clear voice, a comment that you think is funny, or smart, or at least worthy of acknowledgement. Just a grunt. Just a glance. But they ignore you.

No? Just me, huh?

(Don’t mind the beautiful people, they’re just here to make reading a little easier).

I want to understand why this happens, cause it does happen, a lot. The more I become aware of how other people interact, the more sensitive I am to it. Some people say it is because my voice is different. The hard-of-hearing accent is odd-sounding L’s and R’s, missing T’s, K’s and S’s, and a lower pitch overall. Maybe this voice is so unexpected that people miss it, the way drivers sometimes miss seeing a motorcyclist. They expect 2 headlights, not one, so they don’t see the one headlight at all. Splat.

Other people say it’s a problem of timing. Even with the best mechanical ears money can buy, I only hear a small percentage of the words in a conversation. My brain fills the rest in based on context. It’s hard work, and sometimes there’s a millisecond processing delay. You know how when you’re Skyping, and the connection is a bit slow? There’s a delay, and you keep accidentally talking over the other person. Even if it’s your friend that you normally have great conversations with, the delay causes awkwardness because the timing is off.

So, I’ve got a little of that going on, but in real life.

Any other ideas?