Beautiful.... or is it?

so, i find myself sitting at my computer having been asked to write about perception what exactly is it? What do other people think? what's the true definition? and what do i think? According to the Oxford Dictionary perception is defined as 'The ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the senses'. Just to clarify the traditional five senses are vision; hearing; touch; smell and taste. This put in laymans terms means anything basically and how we compute it. One of the most common perceptions that differ from person to person would be the way we look. I for example wake up some mornings after a heavy night and look in the mirror and wonder if i'm looking at a monster or in fact myself and the best thing for me to do is go back to bed, unfortunately it is always me but this is my personal perception and not necessarily a fact. Somebody else could look at the same thing and think it looks good, at least that's what i keep telling myself anyway. Just like some people will fancy Cheryl Cole from Girls Aloud and their friend might fancy the ginger one. This is their own perception of what looks good and is personal to them.

As we are on the subject of the way people look i will show you a video that i found whilst researching this, it has been put together by 'Dove' who have been very active in their efforts to change the public's perception of beauty and boast about the fact that they use 'everyday' people in their marketing rather than the perceived idea that the majority of people have that beauty means 'perfect' just like the celebrities commonly seen in the weekly glossy's.

The link below will direct you to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v_azJv50KQ&feature=related

The video highlight's the fact that the current perception of beauty is artificial as in order for someone to look as good as the model does she has to be edited and poked and prodded using various technology before the photo is released. This is the way that the majority of people percieve beauty because they have seen adapted posters like the one shown in the video and because of this it is no wonder that this is how they view beauty.

A quote that i personally agree with is from Schiffman and Kanuk that says "how we see the world around us". I personally agree with this and i think that everything is individual depending on the person. I also think that perception can be affected by the environment in which we live and the perceptions of people close to us. For example if your mum buys a certain brand of washing powder, when you go to University like myself you are likely to buy the same brand because you have been told by your mum that it is the best. This is not actually true however this is the perception that your mum has of a brand and therefore you are liklely to gain a similar perception and start buying 'persil' to wash your undies rather than bold.

So to conclude my personal idea of perception is the way that every person individually see's the things around them. I think they can be adapted and in some cases completely changed depending on how they are bought up and how other influences that they face effect them.