Snap Judgments: How Most Influenced My Life

In a 2014 TedTalk titled “Why Your Worst Deeds Don’t Define You”, former prison inmate Shaka Senghor depicts his journey and transformation before, during and after being sentenced to prison for murder. In the inspirational lecture, Senghor tells his listeners that at the age of 17, he was shot three times on the corner of the street in Detroit, Michigan. After a hospital visit and years of lack of support and counseling from the traumatic incident, Senghor found himself bitter and angry. Reacting hyper violently to this lack of support caused by his trauma, Senghor ended up selling illegal drugs on street corners, engaging in criminal activity, and eventually, shooting and killing a man at the age of 19. When Shaka was sentenced to prison, his violent and criminal behavior only worsened. After getting caught selling smuggled drugs in the prison, he was sent to solitary confinement. While in solitary confinement he received a letter from his son that would start his transformation from criminal to civilian, and change the course of his life entirely. Serving the rest of his sentence, Senghor began to turn his life around. He shared his story with other inmates who consoled him and taught him to be honest with himself and those around him. He read literature which allowed him to contemplate and analyze the decisions that led him to where he was. He wrote a journal of his struggles, allowing him to admit his mistakes and move on from them. He even found someone he loved, who

Everywhere you go and everyone you see is somehow influenced by some type of music. Maybe it's some kind of childhood learned adaption of what type of music influences them, or maybe the way a musician preforms make them feel something. One artist in particular most definitely made an impact on people and caused an uproar in the late sixties. This woman's name was Janis Joplin.

Throughout his entire life, Joplin was mostly influenced to increase his musical skills by his mother and father, both being musicians themselves. More than type of influence upon himself, Joplin was one to place the influence on others. His works sparked the writings of his contemporaries, all those who studied with him, and all those who studied his music.

In recent years, there has been a growing number of parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated. It appears this refusal to vaccinate stems from a fear over the safety of vaccines, and the effect that they will have on their child. This fear is perpetuated by opinion, false studies, and conspiracy, spread by bias media outlets as well as scientists who are incentivized to fabricate this misinformation. Unfortunately, this has led to pocketed outbreaks of diseases such as whooping cough and measles. These diseases were previously a thing of the past, that is, until recently. These outbreaks have led to the tragic, and untimely deaths of several children, and has put many other children at risk. Pediatrician, Matthew Daley, and epidemiologist,

Social cognition is defined as the ways in which people think about themselves and the social world, including how they select, interpret, remember, and use social information(Gilovich). In the article “Some Systematic Biases of Everyday Judgement” by Thomas Gilovich, he addresses several concepts based on the assertion that faulty processes of reasoning and judgment can cause a person to falsely interpret the events of their everyday lives. The first concept that Gilovich refers to is what is called the “Copmared to what?” problem, which states that people tend to be overly impressed with some statistic or fact without realizing that its true value can only be assessed in comparison to some other factor. An example used in the article states that a 1986 article in Discover magazine claims that ninety percent of plane crash survivors who were interviewed knew where the escape routes were beforehand.

“Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music,” said legendary American musician, singer, and songwriter Jimi Hendrix (“Jimi Hendrix Quote”). In the mid 1960’s Jimi Hendrix and many other musical artists extremely influenced this decade. In the 1980’s, there were also many influential musicians, singers, and songwriters that captivated the thoughts and movements of many people. Music influenced fashion and behavior in the 1960’s and 1980’s and these properties have been recognized throughout the years. Music went through an immense evolution in both of these decades. The fashion and behavior that derived from music inspirations defined these two decades as individuals. The

I chose a genre of music called rock and roll. Alan Freed from Cleveland, a disc jockey at American radio stations, invented the term "rock and roll." In fact, rock and roll involves much more than just music – it is a special way of life, specific world outlook (not to mention rock and roll dance). Often, even the most distant music from rock and roll territory is called and calls itself rock and roll, referring to a particular attitude, rather than to a specific musical form. Anyway, my choice was not accidental, as many things associated with rock and roll affect me one way or another and day by day. Therefore, I am going to speak being "inside" the phenomenon, under the direct influence of what is described.

A family member once told me never judge a book by its cover. If you open the book and see what is inside instead of overlooking it, you might find it interesting after all. This quote by my family member can easily be tied to “The Myth of the Latin Women: I just met a Girl Named Maria” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and “Just walk on By: Black Men and Public Spaces” by Brent Staples. Cofer, talks about how she was stereotyped for being a Latin woman in American culture. Then Staples, talks about how he was discriminated for being a tall, black man that worked as a journalist in a predominantly white field. Both of these authors, were being put in categories based on their appearance. People assumed they were a certain way because she was Hispanic and because he was African American. Modern society is quick to judge people based on their appearance; mainly on attributes of race and gender, eventually affecting the person’s outlook on life. People can often be treated and judged in a less than an equal manner. Before they even get to know the true nature of a person, they are judged based on race. Additionally, a female may be overlooked for a certain job and the job is then given to a male counterpart, based solely on gender. Lastly, people will see the world in a different perspective because of the exposure of stereotypes. Being judgmental towards ethnicity and gender will keep us

Judgment is something we visualize, experience, and are exposed to at a very young age, unrelatedly of the content being arbitrated. There are many reasons it is so easy for one to judge another, especially when it comes to the topics relating to ones beliefs and behaviors.

Japan is a place where many of the objects we use come from. For example, DVD’s, digital cameras, and even the favorite food of an American college student, Ramen, are all Japanese inventions. Japan has had more of an effect on America than first thought. However, there is a part of Japan that many wouldn’t expect to influence America. Japanese Animation influences American Culture majorly.

Growing up, I was always surrounded with music, whether it be on the record at home, the IPod, live music, or the built

Along came my teen years. From hanging out with my friends, and sometimes their older siblings, I became exposed to more of what they were playing on the FM radio stations, then the AM ones. Rock n' Roll was my thing. To this day, which it primarily still is.

My preference of music has changed over the course of my life. When I was younger I grew up listening to several genres of music including rap, rock and roll, country, R&B, and many others. This influence mostly came from my parents as I would normally be around them when listening to music. For example throughout my school years in junior high I would ride with my dad to school every morning. He would play mostly older rock music and I developed an interest in it. When I began to drive and spend more time with my friends my music interest changed. Many of them listened to rap so after a while I began listening to that genre so

There are three decades where it is obvious that society influences the famous music. The first one is the 60´s. The most popular music in this decade was folk-rock, which was inspired by the hippie vibe that existed in the United States because of the Vietnam War. The main themes that were spoken in the lyrics of the songs, was the freedom of the people and the seek of peace for the world.

Three common errors in judgement that I have personally dealt with in my life are, stereotypes, snap judgements, and unwarranted assumptions. In all cases, I was not the person on the receiving end of the negativity that is so often associated with all three of these examples, but rather I was the facilitator in all three instances.