People will never cease to amaze me. Sometimes I convince myself that I have met, or at least observed, all of the possible different types of individual, but that is not true. Occasionally, somebody surprises me. If, like me, you are endlessly fascinated by other people and the things they do, 180people.com is the perfect website for you.
 
How many other people is the average person exposed to in their lifetime? That is a very difficult question to answer, since most of us do not count the numbers when we meet people. A great deal depends on the environment you live in, your occupation and how much technology you have at your disposal. A person who lives in an urban area of a developed country is likely to come into contact with tens or even hundreds of thousands of other people during the course of their lifetime. If you live in an American city like Chicago, for example, you will meet people all of the time and encounter a wide spectrum of personality types. You are also likely to meet people virtually via the Internet and observe famous people on television or in movies. By contrast, an individual who lives in a remote village in the Amazon rainforest will be lucky if they meet five hundred new people in a lifetime of experience.

Until I met and married my husband and moved to suburban Maryland, I would meet people all of the time because I always lived in an urban environment. I have encountered all sorts including boring people, funny people and even a few truly crazy people. I consider myself quite savvy when it comes to understanding and recognizing various types of individuals. Nevertheless, I am sometimes perplexed by certain characters despite the fact that I‘ve come into contact with all kinds of people from various cultures. We all form an idea in our heads when we observe another person.  When we meet people, we try to fit them into a category. To my way of thinking, weird people are those who do not fit comfortably with any of our preconceived ideas.
One person I find difficult to comprehend is Barack Obama. When I watch him on television, Obama seems charming, caring, articulate and intelligent. I agree with many of the things he purports to believe politically. Nevertheless, there is something about Barack Obama that makes me feel slightly uneasy. I cannot put my finger on what it is about Obama that puts me on edge. I think I feel the way I do about him precisely because I cannot figure him out. One could argue that this is because he is a politician, but it’s more than that. With other politicians, I can usually get an idea of what they are probably like as a person when they relax at home at the end of a day’s work. For instance, George Bush seems likely to be a ‘good old boy’ who likes to have a drink with his cronies when he is away from the public eye. Hillary Clinton is probably a feisty and rather controlling matriarch. Barack Obama, by comparison, is so smooth that he leaves no clues about the man behind the public façade, which is why I feel the need to stereotype him as one of life’s weird people.

When you meet people for the first time, do you carefully observe their body language, words and behavior in order to form an opinion of them? Some of us are more observant than others. If you like to study other people, then you will probably find the 180people.com website as captivating as I do.