On the topic of social norms and the behaviour of normal everyday college students.
I'm actually being very quiet, chilling in a chair in the corner of Starbucks, listening to my Ruckus and not making any sound other than the clickety clack of my laptop keyboard.
Not that anyone would hear it if I were singing. There's about 70 people in the commons right now, all trying to behave as normally as possible, trying to ignore the RIDICULOUSLY FREAKING LOUD JACKHAMMER NOISES where workers are working on the ventilation systems adjacent to the building. Of course, the wall is nothing but single-pane glass and forced air vents (both of which amplify ambient sound!) The jackhammering sounds (I'm assuming it's a drill or something) have to be at least 50dB, if not louder. There are people trying to study! This poor bastard across from me is slaving away trying to study his physiology, without the aid of earphones. His face looks like he's finally giving up. He's been here at least as long as I have, around 30-35 minutes.
People are carrying on as usual, and listening to the conversations it seems like everyone's acting casually and not talking about the elephant (sized sound) in the room. Starbucks' business ain't hurtin' none.
I don't know how anyone can study in these conditions though. Seriously, I have a hard time studying around my four housemates, let alone 50-150 people in a public place. And to have flagrantly distracting construction noises echoing in the room? Ha, I don't know how anyone can focus in here.
My observations are telling me that the norm right now is to ignore the construction to the best of your ability, and carry on as if Starbucks was its usual sanctuary for "free"-thinking hippies to consume their double shot espressos and mocha lattes and ...
Dude's packing up his physiology and laptop and heading for the door. He can't take it no more. The look on his face is one of a recently onset migraine (one's developing on my end too, lol).
...anyway, as if Starbucks were its usual sanctuary for "free"-thinking hippies to consume their ridiculously overpriced beverages and do their homework and talk about politics and environmentalism.
Needless to say, it's impractical to carry on a conversation with jackhammers going. People are talking very loudly about their particular nothings, and that even further exacerbates the situation.
*shakes head* But they're still here, pretending everything's fine.
...However, were I to start playing my harmonica in here, I'd get dirty looks and other negative social sanctions.
What does this say about society?
To me, it says that a majority of people are willing to tolerate large distractions - things that they feel they have no control over (such as adverse living conditions) - but they will take on each other one-on-one where people are par or better on the power scale.
...Conflict theory. ^_^
In the last two minutes, the jackhammering has increased in loudness by 15-20dB - it's now to the point where it's interfering with my headphones on maximum - and people are starting to clear the room. We're down to maybe 30 people in here.
Why couldn't they do this at night? Are they intentionally trying to make life abnormally difficult for college students? Is this a challenge that people are to overcome, to teach them a lesson not to rely on Starbucks for studying? Hmm.
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3 comments:
Haha yep, >>I<< put the jackhammers up to it, to teach you all a lesson about studying in Starbuck's ;) mwahahah!
I'm surprised anyone was trying to talk really, you know there IS always Facebook...
You're right, if you played the harmonica it'd be like Satan himself walked into the room but to drone out (like a drone) listening to illegally downloaded music at high volumes while simultaneously IMing a fictional friend AND FBooking "friends"/ people sitting 10 feet away is socially acceptable. What indeed does this say about society?!
Well, at least you all get to use your laptops he - he - he.
Figured it was you. (Natas liah!)
And there was a sure supply of people on Facebook too, listening to their iPods.
I think our society as a general whole has drifted away from actual social contact, replacing actual reality with virtual reality and reality television.
No doubt the dawn of the Internet Age relieved the social burden on shy people such as myself, but it takes a lot less effort now to be an extrovert than it did before - now that people can hole themselves up and live their lives completely devoid of social contact (you can order your groceries online now and have them delivered, for crying out loud! if you telecommute from work and do that, you'd never have to leave your house!) - people as a whole have gotten lazy with their social skills. Now, an introvert such as myself can actually reach par without as much palm-sweating effort...but it's certainly not helping society stop from sliding down the proverbial drain.
How long until we have computer chips implanted in our heads, and have our brains permanently connected to the Internet? It won't be long, and when it happens, we can kiss our individuality goodbye.
What does it say about society?
...what society?
Yea, have you seen that new Dentyne commercial yet? I love it! It's basically saying we need to get back to actual physical contact and real conversations.
My boss always jokes we will soon develop long fingers with pads on them for typing and huge eyes from staring at screens all day.
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