You Don't Actually Know Them

"I've heard of him, but I don't know him." - Some sixie or eight grader.

     This really grabbed my attention because I have said this before as well. I know of some people, as in I've heard their name, I've heard what they look like, and I've heard the things they do, but I've never actually seen the person in real life.
     I'm sure everyone feels like this about someone. Everyone tells rumors about everyone, there no point in denying it. And these rumors spread like wildfire, soon everyone knows. Through this we learn things about people we've never actually seen with our own eyes.
    Now some people understand that everything they hear might not be true, but other believe everything they hear and so they have this idea of a person that they've never even met. They think they know who this person is even though they've never had a conversation with said person.
      Even the people who understand everything they hear ins't true already have a preconceived idea of who other people are. We may never see that person in our whole lives, but we think we know who they are because of everything we've heard about them.

This quote stuck with me because it was someone saying, or admitting, that they know of a person (because of what they've heard) but they do not actually know anything about the person. Some people, when asked if they knew someone they had only ever heard about would just reply yes. But I think it is important to set this distinction, so we are not sharing false information about people who's we've never even seen.