Kat Heim: post two

Perception matters.  Anyone will tell you that.  When it comes to interacting with people out in the world, we often think about how others are perceiving us.  Do they think our outfit looks dumb? Are we walking weird? Maybe they really like my shoes. Although the opinions of random people on the street don’t really matter, we still care enough about what other people will think to put forward an effort to be perceived as presentable. Sometimes, how we are perceived by others has a significant and long term impact on our lives.  For example, if you make either a great or a terrible first impression with the person who is interviewing you for your dream job or school, that will either have wonderful or dire consequences. Even if we are the perfect fit of the job, sometimes someone else’s perspective on us doesn’t line up with who we actually are and what we’re capable of. I have experienced this both personally and through my brothers.  A lot of my close friends told me that I’m nothing like they expected me to be. They painted their own picture of who I was solely based off of the fact that I’m pierced and tattooed. I’m glad that they took the time to get to know me because the way I present myself doesn’t necessarily line up with the stereotypes that surround my appearance. With my brothers, I have watched people judge them all of their lives because they’re a little different sometimes.  Both of my brothers are on the mild side of the autism spectrum. They’re great brothers and I love them to death, but I have to admit they do some strange things sometimes. I could argue that we all have a couple of strange habits and most of us have the social skills to distract from those habits. My brothers lack in the social department what most of us take for granted. It’s small things like the fact that they prefer to socialize with a much smaller group, and they stumble over some of their words, and eye contact was a thing that took both of them years to learn to do automatically.  The compounding of all of these small details often leads strangers to only notice the odd things that they do. This perception of them is wildly inaccurate to who they actually are. Although how we are perceived does matter, I would argue that it’s also incredibly insignificant when it comes to forming opinions about ourselves. 

With people, the whole idea of perception makes a lot of sense to me.  However, the perception of the value of objects completely baffles me. I’m still made about our discussion on the world of art that we had last class.  If I had the kind of money that a great number of these art collectors were blowing on a banana taped to a wall, I’d be embarrassed to be spending it on art that is that dumb.  Sure, a classic painting that actually took skill and effort would be worth a high cost, but a lot of “modern art” just seems silly to me. Art collectors are placing far too much thought upon the perception of value of an art piece instead of looking at the actual value.  If they’re looking to purchase an idea, I would suggest that they buy a book instead of a urinal.