I had never lived in a downtown environment until this past week and it’s been an interesting education.
I absolutely love analyzing and watching people. I would say I like it a non-creepy way, but I feel like there’s not really a way to say you do that uncreepily…anyway, being in a downtown provides me thousands of people to analyze on a daily basis.
I’ve been going for a walk every morning before work and I normally walk for about an hour. (Side tangent: you’d be amazed at what you can find and how far you can go in an hour of walking.) I’ve noticed a few social cues from the people I walk by.
For instance, if you’re a man, you don’t make eye contact with a woman while you walk by. Of course this isn’t a rule, but if you don’t avoid eye contact, most of the women I pass by become visibly uncomfortable. No fault to themselves in some ways. A lot of men are dirtbags and will take advantage of an eye of acknowledgment.
Another one, on similar lines, is that if you don’t want to give to the homeless you ACTIVELY avoid eye contact or even walking in their general direction. Once again, not much fault to the passer by’s because if you walk down 6th street for 4 blocks you be asked for money at least that many times, more if you make eye contact. Lots more to this, but this isn’t actually the topic that was on my mind.
What I thought was, what if there were several people who walked around downtown simply smiling and wishing people a good day? The dynamics would be so odd. Almost like the good version of catcalling. When walking by someone you say hi and wish them well on their day.
I wonder what would happen if 10 people in downtown started doing this. Would anything change? There’s a part of people that likes to be alone and reclusive, not bothering with other people in their lives, but there’s also a large part of people that likes relationships and the feeling of appreciation.
There’s going to be a right way and a wrong way to do this. Smiling at people doesn’t mean carving joker scars in your cheeks and always smiling, but I just mean genuinely smiling.
What’s the worst that could happen, right?
Tomorrow, that’s what I’m going to do. A new experiment.
Who knows, maybe it will even lead into a conversation.
That ought to be an interesting experiment.
In my opinion, and from what I have heard from people from different geographic areas, each area has different responses. Some areas readily greet those they meet with a smile and/or verbally, while others put themselves in an invisible box, hoping no one sees them or, as you said, have no desire to be noticed or interact with anyone.
I will be interested in hearing how your project goes.
Be careful with the eye contact. 👀
Be safe.