I doubt I'm the only one who's like this, I'd like to think I am but I know that's just not true, but why is it that I am completely apathetic to the real people and real situations in my life, yet I have no problem empathizing with fiction characters? I've thought maybe it's because writers make it very clear what is happening to the person and why, while real life that's often left uncertain. But even when someone is crying or laughing, or doing something where it is obviously indicative of a particular emotion, I just imitate them because I never know the 'right' emotion to show. I've a fuckton (maybe a shitload, I'm not too good with measurements) of mental issues so maybe it's caused by one of those, but I just want to figure out why this is a thing.
Is it possible that you have aspergers? I know that people with that particular disorder can potentially have problems with reading and empathizing with others, especially when the emotions are unclear.
I think you've got yourself right already OP. You care about fictional characters because you know them. Their motivations are clear for one, and the fact should not be ignored that they were designed from the beginning to be entertaining. The author wants you to care about them, so will make them as likable (or if it's an antagonist/anti-hero, deliciously evil) as possible. With regular people, they're just that, regular people. You can fit almost all of humanity into a group called "average" and assume they are not interesting. But the more you learn about people and how they got to be where they are, it turns out that most of them have bits of excitement scattered here and there. Small example: I thought my dad was regular guy. It turns out that he has stories from his flight attendant days of being stranded in eastern Africa, as well as eventually getting his private pilot's license and earning a civilian medal for flying troops into Iraq during Operation Desert Shield. This pudgy guy I knew for liking football and having smelly feet suddenly became an action hero in my eyes.
Abbra: Given the long list of issues I have, that different doctors have credited to one disorder or another, it's a possibility. I think one of them even mentioned something about it once, but that was the last time I saw him. RSwordsman: This is my fault, I was tired and flubbed that section. When I say that real life often leaves things uncertain (as opposed to fictitious people/events which are often clear) I mean more the extenuating circumstances and other things that I can't physically see. I have a few family members that have cancer, one that even has a terminal case. My family, extended and immediate, is really emotional about that subject and often get incredibly sad about it. I understand what they're sad about but I don't understand why they're sad. I can understand what caused an emotion, but I don't understand why people get emotional in the first place. I once made the mistake of asking my mom why she was crying (her mother, my grandmother had just died) and she looked at me like I was this heartless thing and got really angry with me. After that I just started watching people and what emotions they used in certain situations so that I could imitate those emotions at appropriate times. I still have trouble gauging how much of an emotion I should show, and end up being given odd reactions for over/under-reacting. [fuck, this makes me sound insane] I've read real life stories, seen real life events, and met real life people that could hold a flame to an entertaining/amazing fiction counterpart, but while the fictional ones can make me excited or bring a tear to my eye, the real life ones I react to the same as if I were washing dishes.
