"Don't judge a book by its cover"..well we have all heard this before, whether it was from our mom, friend, or teacher its bound to have been brought up at some point. Hopefully, you know we aren't really talking about books, but metaphorically speaking. Really, if we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, then what the hell is the cover even there for? Obviously the editor/writer of the book spent some sort of money and time designing that cover. Therefore, that cover must serve a purpose; that purpose is that you don't have the time to read every book in every book store and we need a way to decide which book to give our time to.
So we still aren't really talking about books here; we are talking about people. The same principles apply whether we like to believe it or not. Obviously, not every person has the opportunity to choose the cover, but most of us do. This means the guy wearing the "fuck bitches and hos" t-shirt is likely not boyfriend material and the girl working at the coffee shop with her septum pierced is probably not the most conservative. I'm not saying covers are never wrong, but really they are there for a reason. We love categorizing things, we love saving time, and HELLO book covers help us do both.
Ignoring covers can be messy. I mean, if we are driving down the road and we see a hitch hiker, why not pick him up? It's on your way anyways and maybe its good conversation so whats the problem? The problem is you don't have time to read the book (in this case the hitch hiker) and its a risk. He could be the greatest guy in the world but do you know that? NO. So you could pretty much flip a coin on the whole he's a nice guy he's a murderer thing. There are less murderers in the general population, but do you really want to find out?
There are two points to my rant:
1. The whole "Don't judge a book by its cover" is a load of crap. I'm not saying use the cover to make all decisions, because really that's just as stupid as not looking at it at all. 99% of people dress and act in a way that they would like to be perceived. The cover should be a guide, it's there to help you and in the fast-paced world we live in we could use all the help we can get.
2. The cover matters, and guess what? you have one too! So take a moment to think about exactly what you are portraying. People are making decisions based on it. Employers, future friends, and day to day acquaintances all make inferences from your cover. Not only that but your cover includes so much more now that we have internet sites designed around representation. Some of you are judging my blog as a reflection of me at this very moment as you read it. So make sure people are looking at what you really want to represent!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment