Diversity Multimedia: As the Component That Brings

¶ … Diversity Multimedia:

As the component that brings out the difference in each person and makes us interesting, diversity enables us not to be judgmental of others. This is primarily because an understanding of the visible and hidden aspects of an individual promotes an understanding of individual distinctiveness and tolerance. The increased understanding of the hidden dimensions of diversity together with the visual aspects enables people to enrich themselves through removal of ignorance and obtaining divergent views on others diversity. Consequently, diversity is an aspect that impacts a wide range of people through enabling every individual to be unique. The Place for Diversity Multimedia is a significant in exploring how people tend to label others based on their analysis of a simple excerpt, which is usually the visual dimensions of these individuals. When the judgments are made based on the visual dimensions, they are largely unfair because of the lack of consideration of the hidden dimensions. Therefore, the key to understanding a person's distinctiveness is dependent on understanding the individual's hidden and visual characteristics.

Components of Diversity:

Generally, diversity incorporates every aspect with which people differ and the distinct characteristics that make a person or group different from another ("Glossary of Terms," 2011). This vital element is all-inclusive and recognizes every person and group as part of the distinctiveness that should be valued. Diversity consists of two major components & #8230;.

Visual Dimension:

While it's also known as the external dimensions or characteristics, visual dimension represents characteristics that cope with a person's life choices. Unlike the other dimension, a person exercises a greater level of control over the visual dimension. This dimension is the most commonly used characteristic or aspect of judging people since its easily visible. The characteristics in the visual dimension include individual habits and behaviors, recreational habits, physical appearance, geographic location, socioeconomic status, religion, and educational background.

While its commonly used as the basis for judgment, visual dimension provides an unfair perspective of an individual since it does not incorporate the person's hidden characteristics. Therefore, this component is not the most important one in judging people because it's only determined by a person's physical appearance and the way he/she was raised. An individual's experiences and events throughout his/her life form another part of his/her diversity, which is represented in the visual dimension.

Hidden Dimension:

This is the other component of a person's diversity that is assigned to the person at birth. As compared to the visual dimension component, an individual does not have control over the hidden characteristics because they are acquired during birth (Washington, 2008). The hidden characteristics of a person that cannot be seen from far include race, gender, age, ethnicity, and physical ability. As a result, these hidden characteristics require getting to know the individual better in order to understand them well.

The hidden dimension provides a real measure of understanding and judging a person since it's a reflection of his/her personal distinctiveness. Since they are not visible from a far, these hidden characteristics can be identified through interactions with a person. Actually, the hidden characteristics are usually evident through the way a person talks and interacts with others. Notably, the true measure for understanding an individual's diversity incorporates understanding both the hidden and visual characteristics.

Characteristics of an Individual's Diversity:

As evident in the analysis of the two components of diversity, diversity incorporates many characteristics other than race and gender. This is because people differ on the basis of gender, ethnicity, race, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, education, physical appearance, disability and socioeconomic status. These characteristics differ depending on whether they are based on the hidden or visual dimensions of the individual. However, race or ethnicity and gender are the most common aspects that come to mind whenever diversity is mentioned. This is despite of the fact that diversity also incorporates the difference in values, perspectives, and ideas.

Examples Presented in Multimedia:

As a great tool for exploiting how individuals tend to label others based on simple excerpts, The Place for Diversity Multimedia consist of various examples that show the different hidden and visible dimensions of a person. The first example is Jenna who is profiled in the scenario that shows the tendency of people to judge others based on their visual dimensions. If seen at the store, Jenna would be judged on the basis of her looks and appearance in which an automatic opinion about her would be formed. Due to her multiple tattoos and piercings as well as her dressing, it's easy to conclude that she likes to party. However, an analysis of her hidden characteristics reveal otherwise because of her Degree in English and her schooling for a Master's Degree.

Secondly, Sally is an example of how a person's upbringing is a significant factor in determining her diversity. Sally is a person with several of the characteristics of a diversity personality and could have easily been judged depending on her physical appearance. During her high school, she lost weight, liked parting, and did drugs as a means for covering her feelings about her weight. From her physical appearance, she seems like a person who loves bright colored clothes and jewelry, which means that she cares about the way she looks. However, her hidden personality reveals that she is not only a happy person but one who tries to please other people. The other person profiled in the case is Kim, a good example of how the environment can contribute to wrong judgments of others. Kim was raised in what the society could consider as poor and from a low income family. Due to being judged on her financial status, Kim was told that she could never amount to anything. As a result of people's thoughts about her, Kim determined that she would not remain the same way in her quest to succeed.

Tendency to Judge People based on Superficial Characteristics:

Generally, people have a way of judging others based on superficial ways that aren't entirely logical. Most of these judgments are dependent on the way people have set their brains or on the visual dimensions of the other human being (Chris, n.d.). As a result, people's judgments of others are dependent on superficial impressions, stereotypes, pre-determined opinions, how they treat us and how they treat others.