Perception

Perception, in my own words is how we see things. Through emotions, feelings, visually and even through touch are we able to perceive things differently.  Many components make up our own perceptions, and have varying influences on the way we see things.  For instance, my background in religion might cause me to become intrigued when someone speaks on Catholicism or Mormonism, whereas someone who cares nothing about religion might perceive the person as boring.  Also, we saw from a video shown in class that our physical state affects our perception.  If we are overweight we might be self conscious due to the amount of media pressure.  Also, a blind person would be keener to things a person says as opposed to their non verbals.  But before I venture too far away I wanted to talk more about how our culture, especially here in the US, affects our way of life.  Each and every day our perceptions are changed due to our ever evolving society.  As a person living in this fast paced world, I feel like people are being consumed by the ever looming thought, “what might they think of me?”  It controls lives, as mentioned obviously in junior high, but still we are completely trapped by ideals that society has placed before us.  Why are we getting a higher education?  Because we are taught that in order to become an active part of society, we must be successful.  Parents still push their children to become the people they wish they could’ve been, and it makes me sad knowing that people pursue such shallow dreams.  A dream in which, your satisfaction is predicated upon whether or not you make a person happy, most times that person being yourself.  Our perception of happiness will continue to change, only if we hold onto what society deems important.  Sorry that was my little rant that got off topic; I hope it all makes enough sense.