Categorization of People on Personal and Societal Levels

Everyone categorizes people naturally; this sort of thought is just automatic. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead to prejudices and other negative thoughts. Categorizing can be as simple as "People I Like" vs. "People I Don't Like". I categorize these two groups based on how my own peers treat me. If people are nice to me, I will generally put them into the "People I Like" category unless I've seen them do really stupid things. If people are just flat out disrespectful to me and they have absolutely no reason to do so, I lose all respect for them and stick them in the group of "People I Don't Like". Luckily, there are more people in the "People I Like" group.

These aren't really the only two categories that I break people down into. I would be lying if I said that I don't see people as jocks, brains, and other such stereotypes. However, I don't judge if I like them based on what their category or categories may be. In fact, I like to start conversation using what their interests may be, or what they are categorized as in my mind. It's interesting to have a variety of different kinds of people to talk to. Information and ideas from different people vary a lot. You can see such differences as a good thing.

I also associate people based on their friends. I don't see cliques as people who happen to fall into the same category. I know people who mix categories a lot when choosing friends, and this breaks them down further into smaller categories. I like this aspect of social life. Eclectic experiences bring on eclectic discussion topics and eclectic thought processes. People can gain new ideas from what their friends have to say, and they can influence their friends as well.

All people really break down people into groups, maybe even just as a means of mind organization. This can be bad, but also just a different way to see things.