Reflections on Fieldnotes and Feelings

 As I observed my group of subjects at the U outside Overlook South, I made a discovery. I witnessed not one, but two females who sat down and vaped! This shatters my previous question of "Is vaping male-exclusive," and also proves that females can and will vape, just much more rarer. The main group of vapers mostly sat around and conversed about various topics, same as usual, except including the amount of "lit parties" they would be going to and how it is now two months into the semester. Time really does fly when you are at college, engrossed in schoolwork and social activities. The amount of people passing by was increased by a slightly larger amount, seeing as it was Halloween night. I saw many costumes, and even some of my vaping group were dressed up. I asked via several informal interviews to some members as to why they vaped and I got a plethora of responses, the most common either being,”I like the many different flavors they have for juices,” to ,”I put nicotine in mine so it gives me a head buzz,” to ,”After I put nicotine in my vape I became addicted,” which poses the question of ,”Why would you want to add nicotine to your vape, even though nicotine is highly addictive?” I could understand going from a certain amount of nicotine and slowly weaning yourself off, as is the actually reasoning behind vaping, but to add nicotine and make yourself addicted to it is mindboggling! Granted, vaping is still healthier than cigarettes, but depending on if you have nicotine in your vape, you are still getting addicted to it, and will most likely continue to vape, which just defeats the purpose of why people primarily vape. Not for the social aspects, but to get off of cigarettes! As a whole, vaping is still a male-dominated activity, but it is not exclusively male, due to my witnessing of two females vaping. This just shifts my data and forces me to re-look at all my data to see any kind of pattern. I have already ascertained that everyone in the group that vapes hangs out with one another at some point and are very approachable for conversation. Potentially, they could have classes with one another. Or, could vaping have brought them all together to create a clique of vapers? People of different social and economic backgrounds, united by one common activity? This gives me another question of, ”Does vaping bring people together?” Same as with the females however, vaping appears to be a Caucasian male-dominated activity. I do see a few African-Americans sit down and vape with the rest of the group, but like the females, there are very few that will go vape. Does vaping not appeal to African-Americans? I hope to make a few more observations before I can truly pass judgement on it.
-Jorrel K.

Reflection on Gym Observations

This week’s observations were again very interesting. While trying to figure out if skinny people are actually intimidated by the big lifters, I feel as if I came to the conclusion that they are. I am yet to figure out what makes the lifters so intimidating. Is it because they pick up heavy weight and slam it on the ground? Or is it because of the way a big person appears and would present themselves?

When I first got to the gym to work out before my shift, I noticed that there were skinny people working out with lots of confidence in the free weight area.  Before I even started my workout I observed them some more, just so I wouldn't scare them away when I did workout with my heavy ass weight.  After watching them for a couple minutes I decided to start my workout and noticed that they started to become self-conscious.

Since it was just shoulder day I didn’t do any really heavy weight and I was also pretty far away from them.  I like to check myself out in the mirrors after sets every so often and they would look at me with a look of admiration. It’s flattering that there are people admiring you but can also be really weird and uncomfortable after a while of them consistently staring at you.  Once I started shoulder press which went up to decently heavy weight, they began to feel uncomfortable on being in the free weight section.  As soon as another big person showed up and started working on chest, the scrawny people left.  More and more big people started showing up and soon enough there were no more scrawny people left.

Once I was done with my work out and started my shift, I noticed that the only scrawny people who had any confidence in going to the free weight section where the ones being trained by a big person.  Soon enough I will also begin personal training myself and hopefully I will have a client that I can interview to figure out if it the big people’s look that intimidates them or is it the fact that they lift heavy weight, scream, and slam the weights.  So far from what my coworkers have told me when I asked them, they said that from what they’ve noticed it is the screaming and weight slamming that scares the scrawny people away.

-junior v

New Corner

This week I was observing in corner three and I was also able to observe people that were in the couch area. And to me those people seemed a little weirder, as if they were literally just trying to kill time before their next class.

This one girl, was literally just staring into blank space. She wasn’t even staring at the wall or anything. She was just staring directly in front of her and she was doing so for a good 5-7 minutes. It sort of freaked me out so I wonder if the people around her were wondering the same thing.

Also in the couch area, there were two people passing their time by sleeping. Like seriously? How can you just sleep out in the open? I would be too paranoid that someone would try to take my bag or my wallet or something.

The rest of the people (mainly girls) were in groups chit chatting, and sitting around in a circle. I figured they were maybe juniors or seniors to have such a big group of people, because usually freshmen are lonely or with one or two buddies to kill time with. Not in a group of about 10.

My other observations were pretty much the same. I came to the same pattern that most men alone rather than the woman, and in my first weeks observation, I hinted that maybe it’s because of the same reason why women don’t use the bathroom alone. They usually drag a friend along with them.
So I see more men eating alone than women, and I also seen more men in groups then the women. Usually when there is a table of ladies, there is usually only two of them, but when you see a table of guys, there is usually about three or four of them, maybe even more.
Another interesting thing that I saw was that this one girl was going between two tables. She was originally sitting with a guy at table 6 and I guess her two friends decided to sit next to them at table 7. Instead of introducing them and merging tables, she was going from table to table. Talking to her one friend at the table she originally sat at and then going to the next table and talking to the two people there. I also wondered how her friends must have felt. I know that if I were to be one of her friends at that table I would have been annoyed. Because it’s like either you are going to sit with us or sit with him or we all sit together. All that running around was unnecessary.
-Rosie G

Common hour reflection

Student center observation

Location: Second floor in the student center

Time: During common hour

   During my last observation I have not seen anything new so I decided to go to the student center at a different time. While I got out of the elevator during common hour, I realize how many student were up there and they were not in groups. All the students that were sitting down were alone and listening to music, watching Netflix or some other stuff. There were barely any seats left. So I decided to sit with a girl. I took my laptop out and started to observe.

   After five minutes passed I started to observe the students, I saw that every time a student came up the second floor they would look for a seat. But first they would make eye contact to the person sitting in that section. If they were comfortable enough they would sit with them. That is when I realize that I have done the same, before choosing a spot to sit. When I got off the elevator I looked at every section and usually turned away from the sections in which there were guys, because they would think you are interested in them. Also because it would feel weird so I sat with a girl who was not paying attention at all and looking at her Instagram. I kept seeing this pattern until two girls and two guys came upstairs and with their opposite gender. I could not help but ask, what drove us to not sit with our opposite gender? Is there a certain type of preference?

    However on the other section there was a couple that was sitting down, they were Hispanic. They were laughing, hugging and kissing each other. They looked very happy and only stayed there for a while because a female student decided to sit in the same section they were in. Of course they felt a little uncomfortable. When they left another couple took their place. The couple this time was white, and they were kissing but mainly just talking. As I reflected on the couple before them I wanted to know why they treated each other differently. Was it because of the environment they were in?

It was pretty interesting to see all of these different things that happen during common hour, I am hoping to find a pattern that is seen every day. I am planning to come back at the same time and see if anything changes

By: Angelica Martinez

funny reactions at the gym

During this week’s observations I tried to learn more about competition but I happened to stumble upon something else that I have not noticed before.  This week I noticed that the same big/ athletic people that only lift are the only ones who scream and grunt while working out. I won’t lie, I also do the same and fall under this category but this is the first time I noticed the reactions of people around the one individual screaming or grunting. 

While I was trying to observe competition between lifters, which is what I will call the big/athletic people from now on, I happened to notice an out of place skinny person working out near the lifters.  He was minding his business doing his own weight and a competition was going on near him between two lifters.  One of them decided to put up a lot more weight than they can handle and during the set they began to grunt and scream then he slammed the dumbbells on the ground. The out of place skinny guy was startled then got up and went back to the machines sections. While I was observing this I could not help but laugh but also get annoyed because neither of them racked their weights.
   Since I was working at that moment,which is why I got annoyed, I was not able to test it out myself by lifting heavy weight and then slamming it on the ground to see if a skinny or obese person always gets up and goes back to the machines.

During my entire shift I witnessed two other similar situations.  Do they get away from the lifter because they are scared of a dumbbell hitting their foot or because they are just intimidated of the lifter? If I get a chance and happen to find a skinny or obese person by the free weights, I will try to answer my question by lifting heavy weight and screaming but when I finish my set I will not slam the weights on the ground to hard. This way if the person gets up and leaves it means he is intimidated by the lifter but if he stays it just means that they were just scared of a dumbbell falling on their foot.  Whatever the answer to my question may be, it is still funny. From now on every time I see a skinny/obese person near me during my sets I might just have to slam the weights even harder on the ground so they could get up and leave and I could have a good laugh.  Just kidding, I can’t be that mean. I might just do it if they are using a bench or dumbbell that I want to use too, but that’s about it.

-Junior V

New Habits

When I first began this project I was expecting to see the same patterns everyday. I mean how much do I expect to observe in a food court besides students eating, wasting time and socializing. I didn't expect to make new observations, so everyday  I would visit the food court and write down the same things I seen previously. I had already noted students habits such as what they ate, who they sat with, the technology they used and how much time they spent there. This wasn't helping much I was on the rode to having a very vague ethnography paper. So I decided to change my patterns. Instead of sitting where I usually sat I sat near the window. Initial all I seemed to notice was the obvious, such as students socializing, their eating habits and there social grouping. So I decided to focus on the people who sat exactly where I sat. People who sat near the window were mostly people from foreign countries. Blacks and whites barely sat alone near the window. I also noticed that everyone who sits at a two seated table near the window are not eating with friends but in fact sitting there studying alone. These students are very focused, completely engaged in there work. I observed  three students at once. None of which stopped studying to look at there phone, socialize, eat or do anything else. This was strange to me because majority of college students always check there phone repeatedly. Once they were completely done with there work they then looked at there phone and went to get food. I didn't understand why did these students choose to sit by the window alone? Why did these students chose not to multitask? Students who did eat and socialize sat in the middle of the food court in the mix of everyone else. These students were studying too but they were multitasking. These students were mainly white and black. This is when I came up with  the question, is multitasking not normal for people from other countries? or do they rather get their work done before doing anything else?
I never expected to notice something like that when I initially started my research. I now know that I need to change my habits and pay attention to the little details and patterns. I decided that every time I visit the food court I will change one of my habits. For example next week I am going to try new foods and observe the people who tried those foods. After I examine everything about the food court I will then start my interviews, prepared with a lot of meaningful questions other then why are you here ? and what are you eating?
-Ayinah S

The site I chose was the food court in the student center at William Patterson University. I chose this site because  majority of the student body spend their free time in the student center including me. Students also seem to feel more comfortable there which means I will be able to conduct more successful interviews.Majority of theses students are commuters. The minority of these students are residential students. Residential students come to the food court to order food and take it to go, commuters choose to sit and eat with other commuters. I came to the conclusion that the student center food court is used for students to socialize, eat and study. I noticed that students would spend more time than necessary in the student center, even if they are no longer eating or studying they will sit there on there cell phone or there tablet. These students are usually separated into groups. For example separated by race, gender and age. They are also separated into social groups like sport teams, sororities and other clubs. I also noticed that these groups all have different food choices. Upper classman girls and girls that are in a sorority choose to eat salad, sushi and other healthy things. The boys on sport teams choose to eat unhealthy options such as pizza and cheese burgers. I then came to the conclusion that the student center is a place to socialize and spend time with your friends.
 My observations led me to a few initial questions. Why do students choose to spend there free time here? What percent of these students are commuters? How does race and social class play apart in grouping in the food court? What are these students interests? and last, Is socializing in the student center something students look forward too?
I participate in this culture on a daily basis. I eat at the food court twice a day and I also study there before classes. As a freshman I have yet to join any clubs or socialize with other students therefore I am there alone. I noticed that other friends do the same thing. So I wonder, is this a freshman thing? do freshman choose to eat alone because they have yet to make friends?
As of now I do not have a main focus, I will continue to participate in this culture to get a better understanding of socializing in the food court at the student center.

-Ayinah S