IS IT WHAT WE SEE, OR WHAT WE UNDERSTAND?

We do not see the world with our eyes alone. We give meaning to what we see and interpret it in our minds; sometimes, without even realizing it, we add something from our own experiences, fears, and expectations. A facial expression, a hand gesture, a single word, a traffic light, or a simple symbol tells us something. Yet there is something interesting here: no sign carries its meaning entirely on its own. Meaning is created in the mind of the person who sees it.

When we see a red light, we know that we are supposed to stop. When we see someone smile at us, we usually interpret it as a sign of warmth and friendliness. When we encounter a brand logo, however, we do not see merely a shape; our previous experiences, what we have heard, and what we have felt about that brand can all suddenly come alive in our minds.

That is why communication is not only about what we say. How what we say or show is interpreted by the other person is at least as important as the message itself.

Semiotics, or göstergebilim in Turkish, is precisely the field that tries to understand this world. It examines how signs emerge, how they are used, and how people assign meaning to them. The reason it is connected to so many fields, from psychology and philosophy to sociology and linguistics, from art to design is that understanding signs is not easy without understanding how human beings create meaning.

Moreover, signs appear in far more places than we might imagine.

For example, an expensive car parked outside a house is not merely a means of transportation. Depending on whose car it is, where it is parked, and who is looking at it, it can become a sign of wealth, status, success, or ostentation.

The hundred-dollar bill lying on the table is not merely a piece of paper either. To one person, it means money; to another, it may represent power; to someone else, security or freedom.

An untied shoelace may suggest carelessness or absent-mindedness. A long line of cars stretching through traffic does not merely mean lost time; it may also tell us something about a city's transportation problems, poor planning, or the difficulties brought about by growth.

Even the blue sky does not mean the same thing to everyone. To a farmer, it may be a sign of a beautiful day. To a painter, it may be a source of inspiration. To a child, it may mean an opportunity to play outside. To someone else, it may mean that a long-awaited journey is finally about to begin.

So, most of the time, we do not see things simply as “what they are.” What we see becomes a sign of something else in our minds.

Perhaps this is one of the most important characteristics of the human mind:

“We do not simply see; we interpret what we see.”

What is more, our minds often process images faster than words. We can recognize a face, a picture, or a symbol within a few seconds. Explaining the same thing at length, however, may require many more words.

We do not read an explanation to understand a traffic sign. When we see a red light, we know what to do. An exclamation mark catches our attention, an arrow points us in a direction, a heart often evokes love and affection, and the image of a nurse making a “shushing” gesture in a hospital reminds us to remain quiet.

The power of visual communication comes partly from this. Images often leave a more direct impression on our minds than words do.

We may remember a photograph for years while having long forgotten the dozens of sentences that were spoken about it. Our childhood memories contain many examples of this. The image of an old house can bring back a street we have not visited for years; a person's face can remind us of a day we spent with them; an old photograph can bring an entire period of our lives back to memory.

Yet the power of visual communication also carries a danger. Because seeing does not necessarily mean understanding correctly.

Although it is easy to assume that a symbol has the same meaning for everyone, meaning can change according to culture, time, society, and the individual. A behavior that is considered a sign of respect in one society may be understood differently in another. A color may evoke happiness in one place while representing mourning somewhere else.

For this reason, the more powerful visual communication becomes, the more carefully it should be used.

A well-designed sign can communicate a complex idea within a few seconds. A poorly designed sign, on the other hand, can make even the simplest message difficult to understand. It is not enough for a symbol to look attractive; what it communicates must also be clear.

Because the real purpose of communication is not simply to show something. The real purpose is for what we show to create, in the mind of the other person, a meaning as close as possible to what we intended to communicate.

The German professor of mass communication Marion G. MĂŒller offers a thought-provoking perspective on visual communication in this regard. The visual is, in a sense, like the political: everyone thinks they know something about it, and to some extent, they really do. But this does not mean that visual communication is simple.

On the contrary, the visual world is often far more complex than we imagine. Consider a photograph.

A photographer does not simply press the shutter. The photographer decides what to include in the frame and what to leave out. The angle is chosen, the light is adjusted, and the right moment is awaited. Another photograph of the same event, taken just a few meters away, may tell us an entirely different story.

The same person may appear strong in one photograph, sad in another, and threatening in yet another. Yet the person is the same. What has changed is the image presented to us.

That is why sometimes we see not reality itself, but the way reality is presented to us.

This has become even more important today. Much of our lives takes place among visual messages. Social media posts, advertisements, news photographs, short videos, emojis, logos, and graphics are constantly telling us something. And they often do so without our even noticing.

Before reading the content of a news story, we tend to look at its photograph. Before learning the features of a product, we are influenced by its appearance. Before we have even spoken a single word with someone, we can form an impression of them simply by looking at their photograph.

Sometimes a photograph really can be more powerful than a thousand words. But precisely for that reason, it can also mislead us more easily than a thousand words.

In such a world, visual literacy becomes an important skill. It is not enough merely to see an image; we need to be able to step back from it and look at it with some distance.

What are we being shown?

Why, specifically, are we being shown this?

What are we not seeing?

Why am I assigning this particular meaning to the image?

Could someone else interpret the same image differently from me?

These questions do not apply only to photographs or advertisements. We encounter the same problem in human relationships.

We may interpret someone's silence as indifference. Yet perhaps they are hurt. We may see someone's stern expression as arrogance; perhaps they are simply tired. We may interpret a friend's failure to respond to our messages as a sign that they do not care, when perhaps they are going through a difficult day in their own life.

In short, we read people the way we read images. And sometimes, we read them incorrectly.

Perhaps maturity begins, in part, with learning not to immediately assign meaning to everything we see; with accepting that there can be a difference between a behavior and the intention behind that behavior; and with remembering that an image is not the whole of reality.

Because what we see and what it means to us are not always the same thing.

The world is not made up only of objects. The world is also made up of meanings. And we live our lives among those meanings. A smile, a silence, a glance, a color, a photograph, a symbol, a traffic light
 Even a half-empty glass can tell us something.

But perhaps, at the end of all this, there is a more important question we should ask ourselves:

“Is what I see really what is there, or is it the meaning my mind has given to it?”

Human beings are not merely creatures who see. We are creatures who give meaning to what we see.

Perhaps the first step toward understanding life more accurately is to recognize the difference between what we see and the meaning we attach to it.

Because sometimes, we do not need to change the world.

We simply need to look at it a little more carefully.

 

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