Not Saying Anything Speaks Louder than Words

When I am in conversation with someone I try to be very aware of how they are feeling. Especially if the person I am talking with is someone I don't know very well I try to figure out where their comfort zone is or how they respond to me. I love to be honest with people and share my heart but sometimes that freaks people out or I need to try doing it in a less abrupt kind of way. That's the beauty of getting to know each other, we realize how very much a like and how extremely different we all are. Although this probably sounds very redundant I value eye contact in conversation. There are many different ways to interpret eye contact but here are a few of my thoughts.
If the person I am talking with maintains eye contact throughout our conversation I feel as if they want to hear what I have to say and they are interested to hear what I will say in response to their thoughts. Especially when I meet someone new and they give me eye contact I get really excited because they seem engaged in the conversation we are having. On the flip side, when someone will not look at you strait in the eyes it can mean a few different things. First and foremost I think it's just a comfort level thing. They probably are listening to you intently but staring someone in the eyes may be something more intimate or personal that they don't do with everyone. The other person could also be trying to avoid the conversation by looking busy or distracted. This doesn't work well with me and my close friends because we try to be so intentional about conversation that we are very aware when someone is not being themselves. I also thing the lack of eye contact can be a sign of embarrassment or guilt. It's a hard thing to look in some one's eyes if you know you've hurt them or let them down.
The phrase "whoever has the information has the power" is a sad, but in many cases a true statement. I don't believe this is the truth most of the time but because many people feel they have to live off of power that is the attitude they use in reference to the things they know. If we look at many different situations in our past we see this attitude. For example during much of our early history the ability to read was something only the wealthy were allowed to do. It was thought unnecessary to have the lower class (maids, slaves, etc) learn to read. Some feared they would gain too much knowledge and others thought they wouldn't be able to do it anyway. During the slave trade many slave owners had no respect for their slaves and would use reading against them, saying something said one thing even if it didn't. Even though many of these slave owners were probably less intelligent than most slaves they had to keep their higher rank and having knowledge of reading, writing among other things made sure they were in control.
How do you feel about eye contact? Does it freak you out or do you find it to be respectful?