Appearance is a very relative topic, but not too much, especially in the era in which we are living. What is appearance? It is simply what we see at first glance; of a person, for example, we see the physical appearance or character aspects that we can perceive even if we know little about the individual.
When you walk down the street you happen to find yourself surrounded by strangers of whom you have a different perception based on what you see, which can be the way you dress, hairstyle, attitude, or even ethnicity. Italy is a somewhat retrograde nation, why? Because we are used to knowing what surrounds us; for example, seeing tourists in the park speak another language and play a game that is not very common for us, such as rugby, unconsciously we get to stare at them and dwell on how their life must be different from ours. Apparently, we perceive those people as very distinct from us, in terms of language, habits, history, when in reality they are much more similar than they appear to us. Although the characteristics may be different, we are not distant beings, we are human, and being such, we probably do not have the same lifestyle, but certainly the same needs.
The human being easily gets an idea of something and, based on a person’s character, may not change it; although we all know that what we initially see of someone is not who he is, precisely because we ourselves in relation to a new person, tend not to show what we really are. Having the ability to adapt to the situation in which we find ourselves, if I find myself meeting the parent of a friend of mine, inevitably, to leave a good impression, I will tend to be courteous and smiling, although I may not be like that in everyday life with someone I have more confidence with. Apparently, we want us to have a good perception, not only for others to have it but for us to have it too; Unfortunately nowadays, the opinion we have of us often depends on what others tell us, despite they only have an apparent knowledge of you, not comparable to the knowledge we have of our being; then being aware of this, why do we listen to it? Perhaps who we are to others is becoming more important than who we really are. As Rousseau tells us, in a society our identity is no longer what we are but how we appear to others, due to the inequality that exists among men.
