Prejudging Sometimes Works, Sometimes Not

Haven't you heard of the saying, "You can tell what a person is like by looking at their friends." In a sense, I think that is a true statement. So I could know what a person is like without even meeting them. Friends are friends partly because they like the same things you do; you have common interests. If my friends like rap, you can assume that I listen to rap. If my friends are football players, you can assume that I am one as well.

The reason I bring this up is because I unfortunately do this sometimes when I'm trying to find out the personality of someone. I say 'unfortunately' because I am assuming, and of course I can be wrong (from personal experience). When I was in high school, I had some friends that did drugs, smoked, and partied a lot. Even though we had common interests, I would never think of doing drugs or any other illegal things they did. However, some people who didn't know me connected me to them and thought I was a "rebel" like them. Hmmm, kind of unfair, don't you think?

Prejudging people by not actually talking to them, or doing types of Secondary Research, can give incorrect info. sometimes even though tons of people prejudge every day, even myself. Another saying I heard on the radio is that you can tell who a person is by what's in their car. If somebody creeped in my car, they'd see a pillow and a blanket. What? Is this guy homeless and sleeps in his car? No, my mom put them in my car in case I crashed in the harsh winter weather. However, there is a bike helmet and a tennis racket in there, which would in fact help someone find out what I like. So these sayings do, in fact, sometimes work!

During these days of immaturity among high schoolers and even some college students, we all can connect with what I am saying. By looking at people's friends, car, or even their clothes to see "who they are", we can gather information, but all of it would be assumptions. Even though your assumptions can be fairly accurate, some of them might be wrong which is not fair to the person you're analyzing. As said before, I am guilty of "assuming" a lot. I think people do this a lot if they don't want to talk to the person because of shyness, arrogance, or another reason. Thinking a little harder of why I personally do it... well I don't know why I do it. It's hard to explain. Maybe it's an innate teenager action that we all do. Who knows?