How are people relating to each other?
As you go about your daily activities, you likely often observe people sitting alone, working alone, shopping alone, etc. Solitude, isolation and loneliness seems to be all around us–and this is actually quite extraordinary given that 8 1/2 million people reside within 13miles!
Please take note of an instance of loneliness over the course of this week as you go about your daily activities (be sure to take jottings close to the time of your interactions so that you have a clear picture to write about later). How are people relating to each other? As Hobbes would put it–what are the ways in which humans anticipate the actions of others such that specific modes of social interaction are being constructed? What themes do you see? You might also observe loneliness in its seeming absence. You may observe instances in which people seem determined to be connected through technology all the time–on the train, in a coffee shop, in the library–the availability of virtually mediated social interaction being ubiquitous to a subset of the city’s population.
As you write your fieldnotes, ask yourself the following questions: What does this say about the society we are a part of? This moment in history? The human type that inhabits this moment?