…how young would that child self have to be in order for you not to recognize yourself as you?
I ask because I’ve seen several shows and movies where an adult character encounters their child self in a dream or via time travel, and they never recognize him/herself at first. The kids seem improbably old to me, five, six, or even older.
Babies and really young toddlers might not be easily identified as what you used to look like, but I’m fairly confident that I could recognize my at least three-year-old self as me from photographs.
I think I’ve got to go with about six, or maybe seven (when I started wearing glasses, and had mostly developed the face that still, with some aging, exists now when I look in the mirror) that I would recognize myself. There are plenty of photos of me at a younger age, but without the relatives or the cats that are in those pictures, I don’t know that I’d see me at that age as me.
I’m thinking this is a trope that stopped making sense as soon as photography became common place. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the child self not recognize the adult?
Well, there’s the implausibility factor to consider (even with in the context of the story). Kids understand logic and context.
I would be VERY hesitant to say to my future self: “OMG! You’re ME from the future!” Out of fear that I could be, or very likely be, wrong and said person would think me a loon.
Despite having seen photos of my younger self, I think if I encountered said self in an unexpected place I wouldn’t recognize myself up until 15 or so. In an expected location, I could probably put the pieces together.
I don’t think I was very distinctive as a kid. No beard for starters. Now and again I’ll come across a group photo which includes me and sometimes it takes me a while to be certain which blonde, long haired kid is me. I wouldn’t be surprised if I failed to spot myself in a group photo if I had no hint it was a group that included me. Even up to my early teens.
I’d guess 6 or maybe 8 to be good at identifying myself, but the bigger issue for me would be that I’d interpret the person as perhaps an unknown close relative or something. I would operate under the beliefs that it’s entirely likely that there are some people indistinguishable from the 6 year old me, but impossible to travel back in time. It’s not the recognition, it’s the believing!
It’s all context for me. I have very good facial recognition in general. Before IMDB came along I was my friends number one source for “where have I seen that actor before” but I will often fail to recognize someone out of context even if I know them well… dance class friend in library, child’s teacher in grocery store…that kind of thing…I mean I will know the face is familiar but placing it eludes me.
I have even failed to recognize myself when I didn’t realize I was seeing a reflective surface, though I had a strong feeling I had seen that woman before.
So if I am the time traveler going back to my childhood neighborhood thinking it likely I will see myself, then I think I would probably recognize myself. But in a dream or other situation with no reason to expect seeing myself…I’d probably just have that “you seem familiar” feeling.
Photography was certainly common enough when I was a child, but I have never much liked having my picture taken. Since I tended to avoid it most of the time, there aren’t as many photos of me as a kid as you might think, and many of the extant photos aren’t very good. Even those, I have seldom looked at–the only pre-teen one I can call clearly to mind was a framed one that my parents had in the dining room. It wasn’t taken from very close, and the clothes and pose were completely atypical for me, so it’s not much help. It’s just a picture of a generic-looking kid, dressed up and hating it.
So, I really don’t have a very clear mental image of my self before about age twelve or thirteen. If I had the context for it–say, I knew the date I’d traveled to and was in my old hometown, I’m sure I could spot mini-Balance easily. Small town, small schools, and I remember my habits and friends of the time quite well, so I’d know where to look. Outside of that, probably not so much.
I have terrible facial recognition ability, and often fail to recognize co-workers and other people that I am expected to know.
That said, the one person I do consistently recognize is myself. To me, all photographs from about age 2 and above look exactly like me. From my perspective, I still look the same as I did when I was a young child. So I don’t think I would have any trouble recognizing myself, although as others have mentioned, whether I knew that it was really me would depend a lot on the context.
Not really. I’d recognise me from context more easily, but I have a fairly clear idea of what I looked like throughout my childhood and teens (though not what I sound like). Actually, if anything I’d probably not recognise me in my 20s.
The way fiction portrays someone not recognising their young self is due to them also not accepting that they should even be able to; because lets face it, in the real world it’s impossible. If it happened you’d be disoriented at first, and refuse to accept it for a good while after, so it wouldn’t occur to you to recognise your own self.
I have a picture of me at one month old. I looked like a baby monkey, so that’s no help.
At two months, the shape of my face was starting to become human.
The next picture I have is a studio photo at 18 months. I was all dressed up like a little gentleman, with my hair slicked down, and it unmistakably looks like the adult me.
Oddly enough, the photos I have age 4-7 look less like me than at 18 months. Overall I’d say I could be sure that little kid was me by the age of eight or so.
If I saw my five or six year old self walk past me on a busy sidewalk, I might do a double take but my first thought certainly wouldn’t be “that’s me!” Eight to ten years old, I’m getting more suspicious.
Of course, it would be pretty weird to encounter yourself at any age as another person. Not sure how quickly I’d get to “that’s me” rather than, “that guy looks familiar…”
If I just found myself randomly amongst a crowd I wouldn’t recognise myself, or if I did I’d probably just think “hey that kid looks a bit like me”, but if this was a time travel situation where I was travelling back in time then my mother would be around as would be her partner or my Dad depending on how old I was, and I’d recognise settings and places, so I think I’d know straight away who the little blonde kid on the motorbike was.