system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: why do words start to look unfamiliar or misspelled when you look at them for a long period of time?
gpt
It is called *semantic satiation*.

If you look at a word long enough, you stop seeing the word, and start seeing letters, which have nothing to do with the word.  The is nothing about the letters c, a, and t that connects them to a cat, so they start losing that meaning.

If you look longer, you stop seeing letters, and start seeing squiggly shapes that have nothing to do with what the letter means, further alienating you from the word.