Technology has really changed the world we live in. With this change came with a shift in the formation of personal relationships. Recently my circle of friends has widened and I’ve been making some new connections. But I’ve noticed something that really has me thinking. We often know a lot about people before we actually meet them, whether it was from someone else, the internet, or seeing them in passing.
Lets be honest, in this day and age you can “know” so much about a person without ever talking to them. With platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and lets take it back to Myspace, our lives can really be an open book. People can “know” so much about us and have access to information well before any face-to-face interactions. If you’re not careful you can be too exposed and before people meet you they will already think they know who you are and depending on what you put out there, determine who they think you are.
So this got me thinking, what if people never really take the time to get to know me or worse come up with crazy ideas about who I am because of an “Instagram flex” or something someone said? Do people really think like that? I began to reflect on the many conversations I’ve had and come to this conclusion; regardless of what you think you know, what others have said, and what others have experienced, you should only use your personal encounters with others as the basis of your relationships and ideas about who they are.
I can only speak for my experiences and thats actually my point. When you meet someone and you don’t have any personal prior knowledge, its not fair to use the experiences of others with that person to make your judgements. Everyone has a past and everyone has made mistakes. As people we are evolving and I’ve decided in this next chapter of my life to give everyone I encounter a clean slate, despite what I’ve heard or seen, everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves or not, as long as they get to choose.
So next time you’re trolling someone’s page remember things aren’t always what they seem and pictures capture moments not the whole story.
MY Directive: Dont judge. But if you must, use your experiences with an individual and not those relayed to you by others. Give everyone a chance to prove themselves. If you take in the hearsay then no one every really gets a clean slate.