Toe in the Water

A Shattered Image

A Shattered Image

Sometimes I think it’s a mistake to know too much about people on the internet. I find that I build pictures of web acquaintances purely from what they say and how they behave. It can be a terrible shock to have constructed such a picture and then see a photo of the real person. Suddenly the illusion is shattered and it becomes necessary to create an entirely new assessment of the person you thought you knew.

Or does it? Surely it can’t be good to make judgments of people because of their looks. Don’t judge a book by its cover, they say, and there’s truth in that, I’m sure. Even if it’s something that I do quite often with books.

Certainly we allow ourselves to form impressions of people in real life from the way they look. And it’s true that aspects of their personality are given expression by such things as tattoos, hairstyles and clothes. But very often assumptions drawn from such appearances prove to be wrong once we get to know the person.

So the assessments of character we make on the internet may not be that bad after all. We are actually making a judgment based not on looks but on what the person says and does. Yes, some people lie and some are very good at it. But, generally speaking, we are all reasonably good at discerning the truth when we hear it and knowing a lie as well. In all likelihood, we are making quite reasonable assessments of the people we know only digitally.

And I think it’s a nicer world in some way, this ephemeral universe that we can switch off or on at the touch of a button. For one thing, the weather’s always good on the net and there’s no possibility of being drenched by an unexpected rainstorm.

Plus, if you’re in my head purely thanks to the net, be assured that my picture of you is far better looking than the reality. It just seems the way I am built, that I always think the best of people until they prove otherwise. No need to send me a photo therefore.


Word count: 359