By: Sanna N.
Judgement, the act of forming an objective opinion on a person based on their appearance or behaviour. This is highly prevalent in society and plays a significant role in everyone’s daily lives, whether they realize it or not. The first thing people do when they lay eyes on another person is judge them. They sum the person up and evaluate who they are. This is done either consciously or sub-consciously and only takes a matter of seconds. After the person views them, they reach a conclusion based on the information they have taken in.Now this alone is an unnerving thought and is in many cases the cause of social anxiety and other social issues. Many people feel insecure, they let what other people think of them dominate their lives and their appearance and gaining social approval becomes their primary concern. Appearance is almost everything and the sole reason that it holds so much value is because people judge one another. People become so paranoid and preoccupied with being perceived in a positive way by others and this is in many ways unhealthy for both the people and society itself.
The negative impacts of this on people and society are endless. As said previously, people feel insecure and begin to become overly concerned with their looks. This can reach the point of becoming unhealthy and lead to a wide array of social issues and disorders. The pressure of being judged by can become too much for some and may lead to unhealthy habits. These may include body dimorphic disorder, which may lead to excessive plastic surgery, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, excessive exercise, muscle dimorphic disorder or “bigorexia”. Apart from physical disorders, mental disorders such as social anxiety and social phobias may also arise from this.
This act of judging is not only limited to humans. Animals use this as well in order to evaluate their surroundings and spot potential danger. It is a necessary survival technique which can help them when hunting so that they may evaluate potential prey and predators and decide whether they pose a threat. Humans have just taken this basic instinct and turned it self-destructive.
Speaking of how this instinct extends beyond humans, it also extends beyond appearances. Behavior is also judged, both in the animal and human world. The way you talk, walk, your facial expressions, everything. This is also a daunting thought, because being judged on appearance wasn’t enough.
Given all of this it can be concluded that judgement is indeed negative, with, aside from the safety and survival aspects of it, no real positive impacts. It is emotionally detrimental to people and society as the pressure of judgement and feelings of inadequacy that come with it truly do make it difficult for individuals to reach their full potential and accomplish their goals.
