Lately I have been noticing a pattern. A pattern in which I am guilty in taking part of. I have become aware that when I am walking around campus, going to my next class, or headed to the bus, the majority of the people I walk past are either looking down at the ground, or more commonly, on their phones. I’m sure this information isn’t a shock to any reader, and like I said, I am one of those people.
The more astonishing thing is not the fact that people are able to know exactly where they are going while also involved in a virtual non-existent world, but the reason behind it.
Imagine yourself on a Friday afternoon walking from the business building to President’s circle. You are in no rush to get down there, so you take your time. Campus is relatively empty, it is Friday after all. All of the sudden somebody is walking your way. They are 50 feet away at this point but you know that they will be approaching soon. You have no idea who this person is, but you begin to wonder, where is he going? Is he going to turn? Dear God he is headed right my way. He is going to pass me. I know he is going to pass right by me. What do I do? What do I do in order to avoid this human?
You know what you do without fail almost every single time?
You take out your phone.
You check your texts, your Twitter… You check anything you can in order to look like you are busy doing something on the computer in your pocket.
I started to ask myself: Why is this pattern so common? Why in the world are we so afraid to pass a stranger on a sidewalk?
I found the lack of human interaction depressing. So, thus began the most interesting week of my life. For one week, I decided to say “good morning” or “hello” to every single person that I passed on campus. The results were extremely mixed. Monday was by far the most awkward day, mostly due to the fact that I was making it weird. There were countless times where I would form “good morning” in my mouth and it would come out as, “good stuff”. The word “stuff” is no where close to “morning”, so I was definitely off to a rough start. Tuesday mostly consisted of me saying “good morning” when the person was way too far away, and most of the time the person would say it back, but after the exchange we would have to maintain this enormously uncomfortable eye contact. Wednesday through Friday was an immensely easier process because I nailed timing and remembered basic English. I held up my end of the experiment and observed the responses.
This is what I found. There were a few people who would stare at me and smile or flat out ignore me and act like I didn’t say anything, but for the most part, people said good morning back to me. It was comforting knowing that when I expressed this vulnerable phrase , that I would get a response.
A lot of people seemed somewhat surprised to be told to have a good morning. In a lot of ways, the simple response “good morning” told me a lot about people. I truly feel that I know these strangers better now even though we have only exchanged a few passing words.
Human experience is a gorgeous thing. Our modern technology is clearly impeding our ability to interact with each other, that obvious. I’m not suggesting, however, that we shouldn’t use our technology at all. I am only suggesting that technology should not serve as an excuse to avoid looking up and saying hello. Being able to make an instant connection by communicating with our voices is what sets us apart from other species.
Lets consider what would have happened if I did not conduct this experiment. Without this past week, I wouldn’t have met the over 100 people that I know have a connection with, no matter how small. I will not stop this experiment. I am going to continue to wish people a “good morning”, and I would encourage you to do the same.