Outside Observations: The Subway

Behavior Observation

People behave differently in different positions. Their behavior can be based on the social situation they are in or by personality. For example, introverted people will tend to keep to themselves in a social place while extroverted people will manage to get into a conversation with anyone present. I seek to observe socialization in public situation where strangers meet every day and see if there are people who would start a conversation with an unknown person and the reaction of different people in the case. The paper will discuss the way people socialize in public places and more specifically an observation at the subway.

A lot of people use the subway as a means of transportation from all walks of life. The observation in the discussion is of various people in the subway. One of them is a young lad of age approximately between 18 and 22. The man walks in the train and grabs a pole. He has earphones on so it can be assumed he is listening to music. Also, he has a hood on and a backpack. All through the ride, he seems to avoid eye contact with anyone on the train. He does this by looking on the floor or gazing at the windows where he is either concentrated on the music or just thinking deep. The lad as observed, strategically chose to stand near the door and it might be assumed that he would wish to get out of the train as soon as it stops.

The other people are a man and a woman who got on the train together and sat next to each other, form this it can be derived that they are related in one way or another. The two also would be seen conversing and exchanging looks. On the opposite side of where they were sitting was a lady who by the looks of it could be around 60 and above. The lady was quiet throughout the ride and only made a simple inquiry to the man holding a pole next to her. The lady seemed to be observing other people on the train and with no effort of making conversations with anyone.

The other person observed was an old man of approximately 65-70 years of age. He was seated on my left side and was reading a newspaper which he seemed to struggle as his eyes were failing him from time to time especially where the writings were in smaller fonts on the paper. Opposite the senior man was a young lad also with earphones on his ears. He was quiet and seemed to scroll through his phone. The man would lift his face from the phone from time to time, looking at the windows of the train and the people around. There was also a group of approximately ten people who seem to be in college. They all preferred to grab the pole. Throughout their ride, they were conversing with each other and laughing now and then.

From my general observation, people with no prior encounter with each other barely had a conversation with each other only a couple of greetings, and some did not even greet. For those with previous knowledge of each other. Talks would not stop. There are those people who seemed to avoid a scenario where they have to converse with anyone or even make eye contact. For example, before seating on my seat, there was a lady at the opposite side of my position, and when I sat, the lady stood up move further to the door and grabbed a pole. My assumption was that; the lady did not want to make eye contact with a stranger let alone start a conversation. She stood after we made eye contact and exchanged an awkward smile. My scenario is one among many where people start a conversation with a simple smile; it may be awkward for people who do not want to engage in a conversation but welcoming for those interested in conversing with the other person. From my observation, for a discussion to start, there has to be the warm welcome from both parties with is directly related to emotion and motivation.