Should people be judged by their social media profile pictures?
These days people get judged a lot by their profile pictures. They get judged by their appearance, skin colour and random pictures. We have seen this happening everywhere but we can’t stop people from judging. People are easily judged through these ways so we need to be more aware on how they can influence us or mislead us.
First and foremost, people get judged by their facial appearance. They get judged because they don’t like how others look and there will be some negative comments like ‘ugly, disgusting, awful’. A good example is when a profile picture shows a pretty or handsome face, the first impression would be this person must be successful, rich, smart or a good friend to add or connect with in Facebook or Instagram.
In addition, they get judged by their skin colour. Whether white, black, brown, fair or dark colors and tones can make people have ideas about us or the race we represent or the country we come from. Racism happens a lot between people because of their skin colour and they would start judging them. For example, in the United States, some people judge the black people by their skin colour and think they are dangerous. So if there is a crime in a neighborhood, it is the black person or family that first gets accused.
Moreover, random pictures lead people to judge other people’s personalities. There are people who likes “K-Pop and Pop”, so they would put their picture as their profile picture and this leads to assumption and perception. For example, when they put K-Pop idols while the other people who don’t like K-Pop would judge their personalities just by the picture without even knowing them.
To close, judging is still happening with or without social media, but with social media, judging becomes easier and more common. Nevertheless we shouldn’t judge someone by their appearances, skin colour or by their profile pictures as it may affect other people in ways that could bring more harm than good particularly when applying for a job or a scholarship. As the old saying goes: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, we should always remind ourselves of this golden rule.
Written by Alaa Mourad Ghaleb, Year 9 student of Abedeen International School