Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A Social Experiment

I've been thinking about social experiments lately. I was involved in one a bit ago, and it was rather entertaining. My roommate and I stood in an elevator for about a half an hour and did things that people wouldn't normally do in an elevator. For example, I stood by the numbers and waited for someone to get on. When anyone got on, I'd ask them what floor they wanted, and then I'd ask them if they were sure. Then I'd spend the entire elevator ride trying to convince them that it wasn't the floor that they wanted.

In this spirit, it was yesterday as it was snowing that I thought of this idea. I wonder what people would do if you tried to creep under the umbrella that they were holding. At first, I pictured myself trying to get under the back of someone's umbrella. But as I considered it more, I realized that people hold umbrellas mostly to the side and forward, taking either the back left or right of their umbrella for themselves, which makes creeping under the back almost completely impossible. This leaves pretty much only one option left: to simply stand and/or walk next to them under their umbrella. While not quite AS strange as trying to get under the back, it could still be rather disconcerting for some people.

Which, as anyone who knows me even a little bit knows, makes me incredibly happy. I thrive on making people feel awkward. And so, I hope to take this idea and use it as soon as is humanly possible.

1 comment:

Jenni said...

u r a weirdo. if someone did that to me i would mase them. so wear sunglasses...