The Role of Observations in the Everyday Life - Assignment Example

The Role of Observations in the Everyday Life We can learn a great deal by simply watching people. By examining facial features, interactions with others, and an individual’s general demeanor, much can be determined. With this in mind, I recently observed people in three different settings. This was a fascinating assignment, and one that caused much of the material we are learning in class to come alive and a fresh, new way. To fulfill the requirements of this assignment, I spent some time observing people in our local mall, at a little league baseball game, and at the grocery store near my house. What follows are some of my recollections from these occasions. Observation # 1 Last week I went to the mall to observe people through a different lens. Our mall is multi-storied and has a variety of shops that one can peruse. The mall is a social place where people from all walks of life come to talk and be themselves. One often associates the mall with teenagers, but I was surprised to notice the number of older people that were there as well. In order to get a good picture of the mall, I sat on a bench outside the food court. From here, I was able to watch people eating, as well as shopping. Teenagers, quite predictably, were loud and boisterous. As I watched, however, I noticed quite a few elderly people using the mall as a place to walk. It was great to see them out in a social atmosphere enjoying some exercise. There was a great deal of non-verbal communication taking place. I noticed the teenagers could seemingly communicate with each other across table simply by their facial expressions. In addition, I did notice a lot of text messaging taking place. This is quite different than I would have thought, but I suppose it makes sense in today’s world. This impacted their interaction by limiting the amount of actual talking that was taking place. In this particular setting, the interaction was quite informal. There were simply groups of people enjoying a day out with their friends. It was refreshing to watch so many people leaving the cares of this world outside and enjoying a few hours of quality time with their friends and family. The assumption I take from this is that social events are needed in our society. There are a lot of distractions in our daily life, and the time we spend with those close to is very important. The impressions I formed involve the notion that communication styles are changing rapidly. Teenagers are moving towards more non-verbal communication, while older adults still prefer to talk face to face. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future. Observation # 2 My second observation involved going to a little league baseball game. I joined my friend who was there watching his brother. I would say there were about 100 people there watching the game. It took place in the evening, the weather was nice, and this provided a nice context for this assignment. I selected this particular venue for the observation because I thought it would be interesting to observe a sporting event, not from a spectator’s point of view, but as a person actually watching the spectators themselves. Similar to the mall, I noticed a great deal of social interaction taking place. Primarily I sensed that non-verbal communication took place by demonstrating exhilaration or despair. You could tell which team a person was cheering for simply based on their reaction to a particular play that took place in the game. All of this interaction was in good fun. I did not notice any obnoxious behavior that we hear about all to often today. This impacted the interaction of those present by providing an opportunity for families and friends to enjoy a night out, be a good role model, and to cheer on both defeat and failure. I noticed all of these aspects on this particular evening. Again, this particular social interaction was informal. Other than being expected to be courteous and respectful, there was no set ‘agenda’. Fans came and went as they pleased, tended to mingle with one another, and genuinely seemed to be enjoying themselves. This impacted their interaction because they did not feel the need to impress anyone else. They could simply be themselves and enjoy the evening. This was definitely evident in the way each spectator interacted with one another. Finally, the non-verbal communication signals given by each person present at the game enable me to quickly form an impression of them. Most fans were passionate about their family member that was playing. I could quickly tell which spectators even liked baseball; many did not. That was not their main reason in attending the game, as they were there simply to support a child on the team. This was evident in the way they cheered a particular great play, and consoled the player when a mistake occurred. All in all, it was a refreshing observation that reminded of the good in people. Observation # 3 For practical reasons, I chose the grocery store as my final observation point. Needing to buy some food for the house, I decided to stop off one early evening and spend some time watching the shoppers. The context for this observation was a large store, in the early evening, on a weeknight. This is important to note because that is a crowded time for grocery shopping, so there was a lot of opportunity to observe people. I saw families and individuals shopping. One non-verbal communication clue I noticed was that I could if a person was shocked by a price of a particular item. Furthermore, I could send frustration on the part of certain individuals when a cart was blocking their way or a child was allowed to run the aisles freely. Often, their comments went unspoken. On two occasions, however, I did witness a customer rudely ask someone to move out of the way. On more occasions, I am pleased to note, I notice people asking nicely and other responding even more courteously to make room. It is amazing to see how much communication actually takes place in a store. My other two observations were places for interaction. The store, not so much, but much was ‘said’ anyway. Parents were socially aware of their children at all times and had to juggle many tasks to keep them occupied, while still conducting their own business of shopping. I watched business people stopping off to shop after work. They talked on the phone, perused the aisles, and maneuvered their shopping cart at the same time. All of this took place while needing to be aware of their surroundings. All of these interactions impacted my impression of the individuals be allowing me to see a glimpse of their life. I could sense the people that were extremely happy, and I could tell when people were in a rough spot in their life. It caused me to slow down and reflect on people and their emotions. We all have the same basic needs, but we often do not stop long enough to really examine those non-verbal clues that our friends and family are giving us. A simply observation at the grocery store enabled me to see this more clearly. Read More