They're Watching You [TMP #23]
On impressions and reputations.
At a glance:
They’re Watching You
Book Club
Song Rec
Let’s go 🚀
They’re Watching You
Person A: “…yeah that’s why sometimes I want to say some things but it’s her so I drop them, you might not even get them because it’s you…”
I remember neither the beginning nor the ending of that conversation but I remember that statement. And after that conversation, it resounded in my mind that I’m being watched. Watched in the sense that my actions actually matter— to me.
Everyone is being watched. They’re watching you. And you better know it.
Of course, no one goes out of their way to track your life (I hope) but you leave impressions. First impressions, fifth impressions, and a thousand more. You do a thing and people attribute them to you. You do a thing and people build a lens through which they see you. Everything you do or say is interpreted in light of how they see you. They didn’t assume a thing. You laid the works, you gave them the glass and now all they do is see.
The impressions you leave on people, good or bad, build your reputation. What you give determines what you’re known for. What you give determines, to a large extent, how others treat you. Wonder how friends know, to a good extent, what you can and cannot do? What they do not know you can do is entirely because you have never done similar in their presence.
Deep this: if you want a movie you know who to go to because person X always has movies and if X surprisingly doesn’t, X would direct on where to go. If you need someone to lie for you, you go to Y because Y is that good at lying, and when you need to hear the absolute truth, you know you can’t go to Y because, well, Y lies.
Again, no one goes out of their way to track your life. It just happens because we’re humans and we collect data. What you do and say tailor how people think of you and treat you. Your reputation, image, or whatever word is very much in your control.
On to another musing,
Dayo
Book Club
The book I’m currently reading and (surprisingly) love — Love in Colour
