Don’t Be So Quick To Judge Others
Here we are. The last story of the week of “Personal Experiences” week. After seeing Denton’s article on his tatoos and his own personal experience with stereotyping, I just had to chime in with some of my own experince that I found myself in. This is story number 7!
Today’s story will be short and to the point. For quite some time now, ever since I got myself involved with Garena (was that a mistake?) playing and helping people with Left 4 Dead. Hamachi users have been great, but now that I caught myself in the chat rooms, I found out there is a much larger world that need help with their issues. During this journey, I have met some cool people, and during a skype session I found the person’s Myspace link.
So just like any curious individual, I clicked the Myspace link to see what this person looked like. For most people, the minute they see someone’s picture, they are quick to judge. Perhaps if they are good looking or not, or comparing that person to other people they know. Perhaps stereotyping?
In this particular case, I ALMOST caught myself in that situation. I saw the person’s picture, and I immediately thought “___________”. But I realized this was a person I had talked to and got to known pretty well over the last month, and seeing a picture or not should not have dampened our friendship. After analyzing the picture some more, I just smiled and moved on. This is what the person was, and that is what that person is. Seeing the picture now or never is not going to change how I act or talk with this person.
However, I’m sure if I showed this picture to my other friends, they may say some funny or cruel items. Go figure right? If I were to put my Versatile portrait picture on this blog, what would happen? Some would be quick to judge me. Others maybe like , “Oh he looks like that? No wonder his articles are that good!” Or perhaps “No way, I’ve been reading stuff from a guy like that?” Or who knows what else the community will think about. ;0
Like the old classic saying goes, you cannot judge a book by its cover, and the same can be said to people too. Just because you see a muscular guy walking down the street automatically means he is a thug. Some of these guys are muscular and are very sensitive you know.
How do we fight these evil perceptions? You have to fight it yourself, and from within. Whatever I say is not going to change you. Instead you must change yourself. By keeping an open mind, you will definitely live a richer life. If I get enough comments on this page, hell, I think I may paste my profile picture just to cure your curiosity. The first 15 comments asking for this and I’ll make it happen! ;0
Posted on April 25, 2009, in Advice, Story and tagged Judge, Judgement, Life, People, personal, Perspective. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Welcome to the Underground. 
You saying pictures of you just makes me think of that old Halo flag with your face on it 🙂
i wouldn’t be curious if you didn’t talk about your picture XD
I’m pretty sure I know this person your talking about, ;). But there’s a twist, the pics on his site are from 10yrs or so ago. He actually does still look the same but a little older and about 30pds heavier. Anyway I understand what you mean by making up a stereotype. Having talked to people online or even better heard their actual voice, your mind will make a picture of that person or a general idea of what they look like in real life. I’ve had this happen before and when you see the person’s actual photo your like “He looks like that” or “That’s not at all what I thought they looked like”. Maybe it’s stereotyping but I believe it’s just that we create an avatar for everyone we meet online in our minds and when we see this person in reality it kind of shocks us that we were so wrong in our assumptions as to what this person actually is.
hey wheres the pic dudes!?