Sean Wang Week 11 - Press Ctrl + A
Press Ctrl + A
Congratulations. You've escaped the simulation.
To an unsuspecting individual, this mass of white text would have merely seemed like an empty post, devoid of all brainpower and effort. But thanks to your complacency and utmost obedience, you heeded my instructions so helpfully listed in the title of this blog post. One might even say I "CTRL-ed" you. (I'll see myself out.)
This week, I want to talk about the power of perception. More often than not, we allow our perception of things to cloud our judgment. For instance, if I had not written the title I had, you might have thought me forgetful, lazy, or even downright dull-witted. Of course, I would have never allowed that to happen. I am, as the kids say these days, "cracked".
Think back to when you encountered something unexpected. Why did you expect something else? Most of the time, we as humans have the tendency to believe something because of preconceived notions. Just the other day, I watched a video titled "How People Look Extremely Different than what you Expected when they take their Mask Off" by RDCworld1. As you might have guessed from the title of the video, it was about how people looked extremely different than what you expected when they took their mask off. Although the comedic value of the skit was quite fulfilling, it also tied in with the concept of initial perception (in this case, perceiving a person's appearance even though you had never seen them before). How many times has your first impression of someone been not the greatest, only to realize that that person was much more fun to be around than you expected?
Perception is also key when dealing with media and the information gleaned from it. These days, with so many media conglomerates filtering what's released to the public, it's hard to determine where stories line up and where they don't. This is not meant to be blatant slander towards said news sources, but rather a reminder to accept that sometimes, even YOU can be wrong about something (crazy, I know).
Point is, keeping an open mind is always a good thing. As much as I hate to admit it, youth is a double-edged sword, carrying both abundance of opportunity and lack of knowledge with it. Things may not always be what they seem at first glance, and that's the truth. Now that I think about it, life is just one big "Expectations vs. Reality", and there's not much we can do about it except accept it.
As a final favor, I would like your comments to include nothing about the invisible nature of the text. Thank you for reading, and I hope that I made your day just a little bit better.
(Shoutout to Leslie. You're going places, buddy.)
(To Ms. Benedetti: this blog post looked very different to people viewing it on blogger.com. Take a look wouldn't you?)
(To mobile users: Sorry to disappoint you, but you're going to have to go on a computer for this one.)
Photo Credit : https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/history-advertising-no-118-nikes-just-it-tagline/1329940
(Shoutout to Leslie. You're going places, buddy.) (To Ms. Benedetti: this blog post looked very different to people viewing it on blogger.com. Take a look wouldn't you?) (To mobile users: Sorry to disappoint you, but you're going to have to go on a computer for this one.)
Photo Credit : https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/history-advertising-no-118-nikes-just-it-tagline/1329940
First of all, I was about to sift through instagram, and if that didn't, I would've tried contact you via your brother via my brother's discord to tell you that there's something wrong with your post. But all is well. You really don't want to gamble on your grade like this (see what I did there). The power of the preconceived notion has really displayed itself in my momentary anxiety for you, so good job, you got me there. I don't think anyone really imagines what someone else's face looks like beneath a mask, rather the dissonance is the fact that people even have a face beneath the mask. I would say the same even for the faces that were not surprising to me or maybe it's just that their face doesn't match their personality.
ReplyDeleteHi Sean,
ReplyDeleteI agree that one's perception holds a tremendous amount of power over their actions. Today, racial stereotypes—which cause untold amounts of physical and mental damage—are simply based off of one's faulty perception of others. As you point out in your unmasking video anecdote, the truth is often much different from how things look at a surface level.
Also, I found your blog post incredibly creative. I loved the concept of uncovering white text by selecting all to reveal a truth.
Sincerely,
Krish
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteMasks do cause people to look drastically different when they are taken off. I remember that about a week ago, I saw my AP Psychology teacher take off their mask, making my friends and I seriously shocked by how they actually looked. While we did not have any serious expectations for their face beforehand, we definitely saw the teacher in a new light afterward. As desired, I make no mention of the invisible nature of the text.
Sincerely,
Raymond Yu
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeletePerception plays a big role in many different parts of life. I don't think a lot of us credit perception enough, because it can be the factor that can cause one to have one idea compared to a totally opposite and crazy idea. I believe that masks have caused a lot of our perceptions to change in drastic ways. It's crazy to me that even now, this far in the school year, I see a student occasionally pull down their mask for a quick sip of water or to catch a breath, and time and time again, I find myself surprised that their face looks different than the image that my mind created. Having this transparency of how they truly look creates a whole new perception of that person.
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteI agree that keeping an open mind will always be a good thing. I have seen many comics or pieces of art that show expectation vs. reality based on conception. Generally they're stereotypical ideas, such as a man with tattoos is a thug, when in reality his tattoos are honoring his mother (an example that I've seen multiple times). Many stereotypes are built off of sheer perception rather than actual knowledge of a person, community, or culture. This is also how many people get to other conclusions that might be offensive, as they do not know the context of certain situations.
Hey Sean, to your disappointment, I actually didn't even think to hit Ctrl + A at first. I'm exhausted and I assumed there was a glitch so I was actually looking forward to saying that my computer was acting up so I had one less comment to write. But alas, curiosity killed the cat as they all say. I will admit it was clever, but you didn't necessarily "CTRL" us, as we need these comments for the sake of our grade, and we would all eventually do it anyway. Perception is extremely powerful, especially when it comes to what you think about the way people perceive you. Someone can either care way too much about how other people see them and it can lead to some huge problems, or they can just not worry about it at all and carry on living how they want. Your blog was certainly very interesting; thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Sean,
ReplyDeleteThis blog is truly innovative. The idea of perception versus reality is a very deep rooted concept in psychology. Your post focuses slightly more on the social aspect of sensation and perception, but in psychology, perception is defined as what the brain processes what it senses. As a result there is a natural discrepancy. For example, in the range of our vision, our nose is clearly extremely visible. However, the brain has learned to not perceive it and block it out entirely. I hope this little tidbit of information deepened your understanding of perception.
Yi-Kuan Cheng
Hi Sean,
ReplyDeleteI love this post. This is one of the most ingenious idea I've ever seen. As I don't have time right now to fully read your blog, I would just like to say that your topic of perception can really be super powerful. You can change how one views something with perception.
Sincerely
Vivan Waghela
Hey Sean!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it took me a solid 10 minutes to discover where the post was. You never cease to surprise me with your ideas. Perception has always been such a wild concept to me because it is so mundane how one thing can be viewed so many different ways. From one's view, only one thing seems viable and there being so many ways to look at things shows the value and power in individual opinions. This is one of the beautiful things about working in groups, because it allows you to approach on problem with the best solution due to a variety in perspectives.