So I was reading a little on how a forum member was getting heat for using CAPS to express herself. I thought how ridiculous is that! Really? CAPS?! Then I thought back to the first time I came across this bias on these boards.
I noticed a signature that one might call garish. It stood out and annoyed me. I then became annonyed with myself for being annoyed in the first place! How dare I judge another person that expresses themselve in this fashion. I remembered having that same "judgy" feeling when I came across users on other boards that always seemed to want to draw attention to themselve by posting in some non default colour. They always seemed to have some hippy name like Moonbeam, or Wayfarer. Then I realized that I didn't have a problem with the DATA that was being presented. The fault lay instead with my brain, and the fact that my own intelligence was not fluid enough to appreciate different and sometimes novel data types.
I took note that just the mere choice of colour meant I was prone to disregard whatever they said, although without the additional colour the post might have had supreme merit and insight. I decided to remove myself of this bias (and many others), and learn to appreciate the actual data itself regardless of what ever form it took.
So now for instance, it amuses me that people call my sig attention whoring, and that now there is this whole "sig purist" movement. Heck there's even a caps limit, screenshot limit, etc etc. Which I'm sure is for good reason. To me these things, like my sig, are a test of bias. If the form of the post doesn't meet "community" standards then it is often disregarded. Guidelines are useful, surely, but abject conformity takes the soul, or spirit out of the thing.
Hating on someone merely because of how they choose to express themselves is really about as low, and closed minded as one can be. As it turns this particular bias is known as notational bias. Below is a social bias that you will find in my sig. As you can see, it can be both good and bad.
I noticed a signature that one might call garish. It stood out and annoyed me. I then became annonyed with myself for being annoyed in the first place! How dare I judge another person that expresses themselve in this fashion. I remembered having that same "judgy" feeling when I came across users on other boards that always seemed to want to draw attention to themselve by posting in some non default colour. They always seemed to have some hippy name like Moonbeam, or Wayfarer. Then I realized that I didn't have a problem with the DATA that was being presented. The fault lay instead with my brain, and the fact that my own intelligence was not fluid enough to appreciate different and sometimes novel data types.
I took note that just the mere choice of colour meant I was prone to disregard whatever they said, although without the additional colour the post might have had supreme merit and insight. I decided to remove myself of this bias (and many others), and learn to appreciate the actual data itself regardless of what ever form it took.
So now for instance, it amuses me that people call my sig attention whoring, and that now there is this whole "sig purist" movement. Heck there's even a caps limit, screenshot limit, etc etc. Which I'm sure is for good reason. To me these things, like my sig, are a test of bias. If the form of the post doesn't meet "community" standards then it is often disregarded. Guidelines are useful, surely, but abject conformity takes the soul, or spirit out of the thing.
Hating on someone merely because of how they choose to express themselves is really about as low, and closed minded as one can be. As it turns this particular bias is known as notational bias. Below is a social bias that you will find in my sig. As you can see, it can be both good and bad.
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