Being impressed.
Being impressed is a rather profound action, or rather, a sentiment that you may not be willing to share with others. Being impressed involves a certain level of respect for the person who did the thing you're impressed with, and one normally only respects people
1) senior to him/her
2) more capable than him/her,
so when one shows that he is impressed, he is generally exposing the fact that he cannot pull of what he was impressed him/does not have the confidence to do so.
Showing that you're impressed really takes a fair amount of courage, and the rewards aren't very encouraging to the person who is impressed. Applause is a way of showing that you're kinda impressed, and if I were to applaud someone for his efforts because I'm impressed, I don't really
1) get anything in return
2) feel good about my hands as they'd probably be stinging from the pain bringing 2 hands together forcefully can induce.
Also, it kinda bruises your ego, because you're basically saying that you didn't expect him/her to be able to do the deed which you're impressed about, and by extension, you didn't expect him/her to be able to do the deed which you do not expect yourself to be able to do either, as everyone tends to have a slightly egotistic streak and would rather look down on their friends(slightly), so if your friend is able to impress you, it just means that your self just got thoroughly pwned.
What's the point of showing that you're impressed then? To boost the impressive person's ego? To 'give recognition'?
Or just because you should, as it's a job well done?
I must admit, I'm impressed. I just don't naturally like to show such stuff, because I don't like getting praised, I don't know how to praise people. =\
Might update this later.
-- 2/28/2010 01:54:00 AM
