Perceptions

I believe that cultural backgrounds help to influence everyone's perceptions about many different things. My family has helped to influence a lot of the way that I think and act. So for me, I was raised in a very active Christian family so with this it was expected of me to be involved in church and with this I have been. With this I have had different beliefs and ideas when it comes to certain aspect in the world than someone who might not be a Christian. But since I have come to college I have been more excepting of different types of people as well as different groups of people. This is partly because I grew up in Northern Wisconsin so with this there were very few people of a different ethnic background then me. So with this I didn’t know much about them so I was able to be easily influence by the media and others around me. But now that I have been around people who are different from me I am able to see that they are just like me and the perceptions that the media has help me to establish were pretty wrong. I think that everyone needs to be aware of the perceptions that they have and where these perceptions are coming from. I also believe that everyone needs to be willing to change their perceptions on different ideas and people because the perceptions that they have made could be very wrong. This could be because they were not very informed about the subject. Like me not knowing much about different ethnic groups, but it could also be influence by our family members that are trying to sway us in different directions.

Have you had a time when you have had to change your perceptions about someone else because you have found them to be false?