It's embarrassing for them, maybe. Why would it be embarrassing to you to not remember literally every person you've ever met? That's an unreasonable expectation.

"You don't remember me...? " implies the ego of the other person is stupidly inflated and that they are SO goddamned memorable that it's implied you lost something by not remembering a brief interaction with them weeks, months, years ago. Sorry, but that's total bullshit.

IRL, normal people don't say that kind of shit and say "we met at the (whatever it was) a while ago."

I've had almost the opposite experience, also decently embarrassing for me.
Thought I recognized some one from a work trip, we shake hands and they said it was nice to meet me, I asked didn't we meet at X a couple months ago?
Nope, that was their boss, I'm just bad with faces.

"I told you I'd find you."

I have some prosopagnosia (face blindness), so this happens to me too much. Can cause a lot of social anxiety. And it's made me look like a huge asshole sometimes when I've seen someone I know, outside of the usual context (at a grocery store instead of work). It's a pain in my ass

Tell me about it, I have AuDHD and face blindness. You get used to being embarrassed.

Meh. I'm a popular person. I meet a lot of people in my supremely satisfying social life. I'm super dooper cool. You must not have made an impression.

"I have memory issues!" is true and generally people then apologize to me! As though they have me the memory issues!

I don't think they did...

Who says "you don't remember me do you?" Just tell them where you met.

"What did you drive?" usually throws them a bit. I can remember your car. I won't remember you lol

I don't think so. When you reach a certain age, it's incredibly difficult to remember everything. I work in marketing. I'm making a rough estimate, but I've shook hands with at least 100,000 people (across twenty years of business conferences).

If I made quite the impression on someone to say that, my response is to show delight and apologize! I usually start with, "Ah I'm very sorry! Please, remind me of the time and place?"

Regardless of how they answer, I usually pivot to expanding the conversation. Let's talk about "the now". How are they now? Are they enjoying the event/location? What's new that might be of interest?

I don't remember faces for shiiiiiit and tend not to pay attention to people at all.

Saying that to me earns you a blank stare and then I return to the reason I talk to you in the first place xD

And it can instantly become creepy as fuck if followed by "Good, then it worked."

So in my line of work I see/talk to a lot of people with somewhat meanigfull conversations (physiotherapy). So if one of my past patients talks with me on the street I usually tell them that I am horrible with names and ask them in return what condition they had. Usually narrows it down quite a bit.

Recently someone recognized me from a sports academy I went to 3 times when I was like 8. I'm trans. How tf

Always start with “Nice to see you” not “Nice to meet you”. Saves insult from injury 100% of the time.

"Are you someone worth remembering?" is probably more embarassing

I’m pretty good at remembering faces…. But pretty terrible with names. Hell sometimes I’ll forget a longtime friend’s name for a few minutes. Sometimes I wonder why it took so long to get my adhd diagnosis

I tam very forgiving of this stuff but I’m very honest and blunt. I’ve had someone say, "nice to meet you," and I’ve had to respond, "we’ve met twice before." If they seem flustered I’ll tell them it’s fine, it was brief, crowded, etc.

The weird thing is for me because my facial recognition is immaculate but memory isn’t always the best. So sometimes I see people and I know them but have no idea why. Did I see them at my public facing job? Did we go to college together? Is it a random person I passed in the grocers? 🤷‍♀️

My answer to that is "have we slept together?"

Make them feel that forgettable!

That's the line scammer will use and did use. I once got a call that basically goes in that direction. Turn out, it's a very common tactic used by scammer at one time. And after they asked you that, they will make you guess, and then will take the first name you come out with.

So, don't feel embarrassed for saying "No".

I just say that to eveyone I meet.

Look, I have a brain like an Etch-a-Sketch and I did jumping jacks this morning.

The few times that's happened to me my auto response was "I don't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning".

Reading through Lemmy about how to act socially appropriate is wild.

Happens to me regularly, thanks to ADHD and a horrendous memory for faces.

My most embarassing memory is from my 2nd day at Uni, sitting next to a really nice woman, having a great chat. After a while I say, "btw, I'm SorryImLate" and she says, "I know, we sat together yesterday".

That ended both the conversation and a promising friendship 🫤

The worst was when this happened to me with a coworker I apparently worked with at a previous company. Apparently we were even on the same team even though I have no recollection of it.

Not really

Theres no shame in having trouble remembering someone you greeted 15 years ago at a party but never really interacted with apart from those few seconds

I have to meet someone like 20+ times to vaguely remember their face. Unless there's something very distinguished about you, I've got nothing. Now I can put it together based on like location + your voice or like location + clothing (like work + company shirt). I can remember like your general body type and stuff. But not your face.

If you have an average body type and I only see you at work in a work uniform and I've never seen you outside of work and one of us is new, then I run into you at the grocery store, I'll have no idea who you are unless you mention work or have some indicator that gets my brain there.

So nah, this is a typical day for me lol.

A friend of mine introduced herself to someone who then looked so devasted, that it caused her to realize how they must know each other: "We already know each other." "Do we?" "Yes!" "Oh... you mean in the biblical sense?" "Yes."