Is first impression the last impression ?

Lately, I have read a lot of books that might not have the most attractive, eye-catching book covers, but if we take the chance of reading the book or sometimes even reading the summary, we would be surprised at how wrong our first impression was, or might I say ignorant reaction, because at the end of the day, it’s a book and you have to read it before you make any judgements.

How many times might it have happened that we started reading an article because of an interesting image present in the article? And how many times might we have missed reading something resourceful because the outer appearance wasn't striking enough to catch our attention? It's the same phenomenon used across multiple social media platforms, where visuals are used to grab the user's attention.

To some extent, this concept of creating something attention-grabbing really works too, because in a sea full of resources out there, you have to make sure your art or work is the one to get the maximum eyeballs. But playing with the visuals is the only way to do so. Or maybe there are other ways, but beautifying the visuals seems to be the only way apt for the short attention span of humans nowadays.

Judging by appearance is something even humans tend to do a lot of, intentionally or unintentionally. There is a reason why we are taught from childhood to dress nicely when meeting strangers for the first time. There is a reason we are asked to dress professionally when meeting with higher authorities: to show respect. There is a reason we feel the urge to dress so that we can fit in with the people around us.

Knowingly or unknowingly, we all get the first impression of something or someone, but whether to act solely upon our first impression or observation is something we decide.