Is it bad to be easily impressed?

[Hatsune Candy]

I don't know if it's the same for anyone else, so I might sound a little ridiculous in this post, but I was always taught that being easy to impress is a bad thing and that you need to be more critical of things you see or hear. However, in an age where everyone is critical of everything, I can't help but question that line of reasoning. I mean, is it really such a bad trait to have?

Now I wouldn't say I'm easily impressed, easily pleased more like, although there's admittedly not much difference. I grew up watching inherently bad movies without even realizing that there were considered bad, because I actually enjoyed them, and still do. Of course this doesn't mean I can't be critical, I can if I need to, but sometimes it's a struggle. I find it far easier to just sit back and enjoy those things that most people would hate without a care in the world.

Anyways my point is that I think it's good to be easy to impress/please in a lot of cases, because you get more joy out of it. I see these people everyday who are always so darn critical of every single thing that they barely get any satisfaction out of life. Whereas here I am, a guy who's been struggling with depression for a couple years now, and I'm getting far more enjoyment out of my daily life than they ever will. If it weren't for my easy-to-please personality, I probably would have given up on living a long time ago.

 

[Jorick]

As far as I understand it, the whole negative stigma on being easily impressed comes from the idea that it's equivalent or directly related to being easily fooled. There's some logic to it, because it makes a sort of sense that someone who's easily awed by things could be pretty easily taken advantage of by simple cons like a shell game or Three-card Monte because they'd be too busy being amazed by the seemingly impossible to realize "wait a second, I just got tricked out of some money." Oh, and there's the more commonplace thing of easily impressed = easily lied to, which is based on similar grounds of the person being easily impressed by excuses and whatnot and thus believing them.

This isn't really a sure thing though. Some people who are easily impressed will be naive idiots who believe everything they're told, but others may be people who simply keep a childlike sense of delight about cool things they encounter. That latter kind is actually pretty cool and not a bad thing to have, because as you already mentioned with your own thing it means that the person is less cynical and critical of everything and thus likely will be happier in general than other people.

I'd say that being easily impressed is not in and of itself a bad thing or a good thing. It has the potential to become one or the other, but there are so many other variables of a person's personality and mentality that will influence it that you could wind up with someone who is very easily impressed but still extremely skeptical and critical of things because their reaction to things is a quick turnaround of "omg cool.. but wait it's probably bullshit like everything else, ugh." Like almost any other personality trait, this one is not universally good or bad because variables exist.

 

[Diana]

I find people who easily impressed by things are usually happier people, while the people who are never impressed by things tend to be grumpy. O_O This is just on personal experience though.

I don't really think it is good or bad either in and of itself. It's always going to be a matter of context and the person in question. >>

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

I have to agree with Jorick.

Being easily impressed in itself isn't the issue.
Having a positivity that lets you enjoy more things is in my opinion a good trait to have.
But that good trait can very easily become a bad trait if it becomes a way of being easily fooled.

This could mean any of the following:

1. Falling for scams and cons.
2. Trusting an individual who doesn't have your best interest at heart.
3. Believing any fact they're told, without checking the evidence.
4. Falling for dogmatic and harmful beliefs/belief systems because once again, they never checked the evidence.
5. Convincing yourself that there isn't a problem/threat/danger until it's too late to do anything about it.

And if you take an extension of it like my Mother does, it can also lead to one harming others.
Because sometimes it can lead to the person preferring to gloss over everything in a more positive light.
Which often means sugarcoating/lying/giving false information to make the other person happy, even if doing so will harm them in the long run.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I've never heard that it was bad to be easily impressed. The only negative I've ever heard was that only idiots are easily amused. I don't really consider myself an idiot, but I'm always easily amused. I laugh at everything that I can because life is too fucking short to take things serious. I can't really say anything about being impressed though, I don't really get impressed by people. o.O

 

[Grondo]

With all the trouble that might occur listed here I feel like it does sound a bit bad. It's probably exactly that, we can list a lot of bad things about it, but the good things are the same throughout it all. "Life is more fun if you enjoy a lot of things." I got into a lot of situations myself that made me look like a fool. I tend to trust people quickly if they sound nice. I do doubt a lot of things I do now, but I guess it all comes down to personal experience. While I can't help but doubt a lot of the things I do now, I used to be really easy going about life and trusting people and enjoy all the things shown to me. I guess once things go to shit you just can't go back to your old ways, at least if it got to hurt you somehow.

 

[Kaddoc]

I have to agree with Jorik.

Nothing wrong being easily impressed as long as it does not coincide with being overly gullible.

Contrary to the subject matter I am not easily impressed on certain things, I am what you consider "selectively impressed."

Some of us have different variables at play in what impresses us and what we criticize. For instance, some of us are easily impressed by a certain musical beat while on the same token they may hold graphic art to a higher scrutiny. Impression is not exactly one size fits all, but that's just me.