You're browsing the internet and you stumble upon a movie trailer that looks intriguing. So you watch it and and you're blown away. It's a knockout. A must see. So you track it down on Netflix and watch it. The only problem is...
It's lackluster.
It doesn’t live up to the immense potential that the trailer displayed. It's often hard to live up to these grand expectations considering trailers are just the miniature versions of the actual movie. It highlights the best moments and condenses a 90-minute show into a three-minute montage.
Movie trailers are like first dates because they put forth the best version of themselves. People, like works of art, aren’t perfect, yet they present the ideal image of themselves on these occasions. Successful first dates rarely consist of both parties exposing their skeletons in the closet. It's for this reason that people get seduced by...
THE HIGH.
There’s a special moment after a first date when that person's stock soars to unfathomable heights. They've told you about their successes, while expertly maneuvering around their failures. Their life appears wonderful and exciting because they know how to showcase the right aspects of it. The flaw in this system occurs when we think...
This is permanent.
We think they’ll be bubbly, fun, charming and charismatic all the time. What no one tells you about trailers, similar to first dates, is that they don’t take into account...
The other end of the spectrum.
On a first date you don’t think about that person in crummy situations, just like when you watch a trailer you don’t think about all the boring scenes the movie may have. You don’t think about what that person may be like if they lose a job, a family member or a best friend. We always compare them to how they were on that first date which is an impossible standard to live up to consistently.
People say that first impressions are important, but for interpersonal relationships they’re wildly overrated. Humans are imperfect creatures, and when we try to idealize one another we're only setting ourselves up for disappointment.
