Perception

STORY TIME

Palms sweaty, knees weak, even the minimal cushions on the chairs feel extra sensitive today. I perch myself on the edge of the seat while all the thoughts in my head swirl around like a raging tornado. I squint and scan the room, looking for the perfect subject; "He's the one," I say to myself. Shabby brown tossed hair, small build and tacky hand-me-down clothes. He tosses his backpack aside and leaves to pack his plate. I take note of the assembly of his location; pens scattered all over the table, books thrown aside, jacket roughly flung over the hinds of his chair. He must've had a bad day of classes, I thought to myself. Even before situating himself on the chair, he glances around, seemingly scanning the room for something- or possibly someone. Pushing that idea across, he sits and yanks out a pair of old and blotchy colored Apple ear pods and inserts both buds into his ear to escape the outside world. He hunches back and begins munching on the hard-crusted wheat bun filled with meats, cheese and minimal vegetables. Horror and anxiety start piercing my stomach in the hopes that he doesn't glance over and sees a stranger intensely staring. Two minutes become three, four and eventually at six minutes, he scans the room yet again to dismay, nothing out of the ordinary and he sips some orange-mixed cranberry concoction.

I've reached my limit and continue to my next victi- subject. The next participant wore an entire purple attire with minimal white stripes that caressed his body. gleamed with confidence that I felt three tables away. This lead me to take a different approach; I had my eyes scanning him in intervals to avoid and eye contact whatsoever. Tightening my fists and narrowing my brows, I scanned him like a hungry eagle circling on a nest of hatch lings. As the first guy had done, this seemingly sporty guy had also leisurely thrown his backpack on the chair next to him and proceeded towards the food bar. Pizza, dried pork, sprinkled with spinach and Italian dressing was messily decorated on his plate. Once he got back to his chair, he hunched back and started picking on spinach that had sauce dripping on the other items under his salad (which honestly irked me). About a minute in, his right leg quickly perks up and starts a repetitive shaking movement. My eyes become fixated at this moment. This repetitious shaking continues but at the same time, reaches into his pocket to grab hold of a pair of headsets and adjusts them accordingly around his ears. He seems to be jamming out to a particularly quick paced music as his head nods to the beat of the music's rhythm. His eating pace has slightly quickened; as if the music was controlling his jaw and mouth movements. I quickly scrabble some words and notes, but in an instant the purple outfit man lifts his silverware to leave.

I observe two more male participants and noted that these particular students were alone and had the same habit of wearing headphones while eating; one had even taken the headphones off to play his external gaming console.

DETAILS IN OBSERVATION & THEMES
In these descriptions, I am sitting at a table especially far from the central area where the men are situated, to carefully analyze them. Also note that I chose very specific groups of people, who had to be eating alone and male. I believed that doing a research on a social group would vary too much if given too many variables, so I wanted my scope to be as limited as possible. Key themes that I would note, are the movements of the style of throwing their book bags, almost aggressively and the repetitious act of always having headphones on. It was also interesting that the men occasionally glanced around as if they were looking for something, possible a friend to eat with?

METHODOLOGY
To accomplish this assignment, I purposely chose a table away from walkers or at least on-lookers and observed my subjects from afar. I had a pen notebook and my phone to jot down every minimal movement that the men made, even down to their descriptive clothing wear because I believe that physical physic and clothing tell a lot about a person. Because of my personality, I avoided confrontation, so majority of my work is just observation and note-taking. However, if I were to change anything, I would’ve brought my laptop as well because I am able to type faster than I can write. Also, if I used my laptop, I would be able to be on the same eye level as my participator and avoid looking down every time I had to jot down notes.

DEEP WORLD CONNECTIONSTo me, it was interesting to note how all my participants were so attached to their headphones to listen to music (presumably). This reminded me of the concept of habitus, where Mauss (1934) brings up the idea that habits are techniques and “a work of collective and individual practical reason rather than, in the ordinary way, merely the soul and its repetitive faculties” (Mauss 1934:101). Physically, I saw the men were always listening to music, but this minimal technique could mean so much more. Just having your headphones on could deter people from talking to you, intentionally watch people and pretend like you're not paying them attention or even allow you to freely enjoy yourself at your own leisure; so, to me, this technique of using headphones has much more of a deeper meaning than just what we perceive.