There’s a crucial reason first impressions have become so vitally important in today’s world. The introduction of the Internet from our computers into our phones, texting, and 24/7 availability has shaped a culture of ‘throw aways’. Companionship and even relationships have become disposable commodities.
There’s always someone else out there, so why sit down and get to know someone? We live in a culture of instant gratification. And there is nothing more instant than looks. Generalizations exist because people don’t have time to spend time with everyone, so they fill in the blanks themselves.
It’s becoming increasingly easier in the modern age to not bother ever talking to someone on a personal level. You just click on a profile, glance at the one dimensional picture and various interests/likes and decide a whole reality. People think they are ‘connected’, but they are farther apart than they ever have been.
It’s a Facebook world, and people care more about their status updates than the welfare of another human being. Just this past Wednesday, TV icon Bill Nye ‘the Science Guy’, collapsed mid-sentence giving a lecture to an audience of hundreds at the University of Southern California.
Do you think students:
A. Rushed onstage to help?
B. Called emergency services?
C. Logged on Twitter and updated their statuses, while letting a man possibly die….
Sadly the answer is C.
Alastair Fairbanks, a USC senior in attendance for Nye’s presentation, told the Los Angeles Times that “nobody went to his aid at the very beginning when he first collapsed — that just perplexed me beyond reason.” The student added, “Instead, I saw students texting and updating their Twitter statuses. It was just all a very bizarre evening.”
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101117/sc_yblog_thelookout/if-the-science-guy-passes-out-and-nobody-tweets-it-did-it-happen
Since Facebook/Twitter has reduced our social interactions into photos and streaming thoughts, we have no choice but to dive further into the superficial. In a Facebook world, people live behind a camera at all times, all events must be captured and shot in order to be uploaded online in a modern day version of ‘keepin’ up with the Joneses’.
The better looking the person, the more interesting the photos. Subconsciously an attractive person will look good doing anything, and this attribute will correlate to them positively at other areas. This is where we will learn the importance of The Halo Effect.
Tomorrow, stay tuned for an introduction to The Halo Effect and how it affects our daily everyday lives!
-Nir Regev
C’mon dude! It’s time to start updating!