After All, We're Only Human

Studying Sociology has gotten me to look at people in a whole new way.

There is no such thing as a simple interaction.

Whether we know it or not, we are constantly managing the image we portray, while assessing the reaction of what we do from others. On top of that we are conforming to social norms while both losing and gaining our individuality. And that is just the surface stuff. It's all complicated if you ask me. Highly interesting, but complicated nonetheless.

I am currently writing a paper on Alfred Schutz who thinks that the "lifeworld" is the unproblematic ground for the emergence of all possible problems, the prerequisite for transforming any un-clarified situation into warranted ascertainability. It is the taken for granted backdrop within which all situations are measured and given meaning.


Well ultimately what he thinks can be applied to an elevator. You put people in an elevator and due to the preconceived social norms and protocol people know what to do. Now, what would you do if someone walked into an elevator and stared at you, or faced the back the whole time? It would either:


a) make you think that person is a weirdo
b) make you get out 4 floors too early because you a) think he is a weirdo
c) make you question their sense of direction or personal space and thus, a) he is a weirdo.


so all in all it just wouldn't fly. 


Well... I was supposed to do that, and maybe still will. We'll see how I feel in the morning. But thanks to my roommates we just role played that scenario on our rug. Well I failed, miserably. I ended up crying for a few seconds from laughing so hard. I guess weirdo just isn't my thing :)

But anyway, it's got me thinking, what would I do? Probably d) all the above.

Oh good ol sociology...