Friday, August 26, 2011

Do Nothing Blog

    I conducted my experiment of "Doing Nothing" at the outdoor mall by my house. I went to the center of the mall where the main square is and stood by the Gazebo. This location affected my experiment because it put me in the center of the mall and made me the center of attention. I went at 7 o'clock which was later in the day and was not the most popular time for shopping. Therefore the mall's center was not as crowded as it would be early in the day such as at 12 o'clock. However, there were still constant shoppers that would walk past the gazebo or be sitting down on the benches around the center. Though I stood out because I was standing "doing nothing", i still think my appearance as an individual was pretty common so i didn't stand out as much as if i had been wearing more outlandish clothing or an irregular hairstyle. I was wearing just a regular sweatshirt with jeans and fit in with the other common girls walking around at the mall. I didn't have many strange reactions from common people walking by because they seemed more focused on shopping and getting to the next store. However, the people sitting on the benches seemed to be more aware of me. There were a group of younger girls standing across from me that were running around and after a few minutes looked over and stared at me a few times. There was also a teenage boy waiting on another bench also across from me that stared over at me a few times but no one came up to actually talk to me. Also, there was no one who seemed to be overly observant of me. I still felt awkward while doing the experiment because I thought people would judge me for just standing outside and doing absolutely nothing except observing. Since i felt felt weird just standing i found it difficult to just "do nothing" because I would absent-mindedly want to reach for my phone or for something to do. This experiment was different than how i usually act because i usually pretend to look busy by playing with my phone or Ipod. By doing nothing it forced me to be observant and pay more attention to others.