By Be honest with yourself: How do you see the world? Do you see the world through your eyes or do you see the world through the filter society has constructed for you?
How you see the world: Seeing the world through your eyes allows you to produce an opinion or interpretation based on your values. This is the: Eyesight vs Mindsight battle.
- Eyesight: Judging according to appearances. She is pretty. That car looks brand new. This building is huge. He is very tall.
- Mindsight: How you interpret what you see. She is pretty but doesn’t look very happy. I wonder if she is struggling with this class? That car looks brand new, I bet the owner takes extra care in all the little details that the average person doesn’t consider.
Example of how this works:
Friend 1: “Wow look, this conference is offering free food.”
Friend 2: “Yeah but look at that line.”
Friend 1: “Free food is worth it, though.”
Friend 2: “Nah, that line is way too long for me.”
Friend 1 was focused on the fact that the conference had free food. He wasn’t worried about the line, especially since it was free. Friend 2 had tunnel vision on the line of people and not the food. It makes you wonder, what else holds back Friend 2 based on his filter?
How you see the world through the filter society has constructed for you: We are a visual society, especially due to social media and advertisements. Social media will tell you, You should look like this woman. What they’re not telling you: someone took 50+ photos of her and used software to enhance her features. Now, she looks amazing. You think to yourself, She looks great and I don’t. What am I doing wrong?
Social media, advertisements, the media, and people in general are programming us to see the world through filters. Why be authentic when there’s an app for that?
They are also programming you to conform to stereotypes. “We don’t like this particular group. Therefore, if you want to be like us, you need to share the same beliefs.” What happens next? When you see the particular group, you turn on the filter that’s been programmed. (A filter that you agreed to.)
At the end of the day, you are responsible for how you see the world. Before you judge, ask yourself these questions:
- What information do I have to support my judgement, based on what they eyes are seeing? Information changes the situation.
- Am I making assumptions?
- Am I fighting confirmation bias?
- Is this my opinion or am I judging him/her based on the filters I’ve adopted?
- Am I being authentic?
- Am I jealous or envious?
Jason Lee Hughes 