Perception

I wrote this piece a few months ago for another Web site:

 

It's interesting how you form a mental picture of people when you talk to them online in a chat room or read their postings on a blog or on a site like this one. You take their words for what they are--words--because words are all you have, and you make assumptions about what the person must be like or look like or do. I think you can get to know people better this way, before all the superficiality of looks clouds your opinion, before you summarily dismiss people just because they don't "look" intelligent or interesting or fun.