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In a World of Infinite Information, Why are We So Quick to Judge?
You’ve got all the knowledge in the world at your fingertips. Use it.
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon lately. People will latch onto one piece of information about a person, a place, a thing, and then think they know everything.
It’s happened to me twice lately. I wrote quite a raw piece about my insecurities around my looks. Everybody has them. Show me one person who’s completely happy with every aspect of their appearance, every day, and I’ll show you either a liar or a robot. So I thought it was quite uncontroversial.
I was surprised that it received so much attention, but what surprised me the most was the people commenting out of either genuine or faux concern that I “needed to develop some interests outside of my looks”.
In my 10-year writing career, that remains the only article I have ever written about my face. And that’s easy to find out. Wherever you read my work, I’ll have a profile where you can read more. Even if not, it’s such a wild assumption to make — I wrote about something one time, so therefore it’s all I can think about?
And then the same thing when I said I find it weird when people thank me for reading. Suddenly, I was a rude, ungrateful cow who’d never…