I’m a big people watcher, particularly when
I’m travelling alone without a book or music. Perhaps it’s having studied
sociology or maybe I’m just a bit of a nosey Parker .I like observing
,obviously not just staring at them but having general social awareness that perhaps
others aren’t quite tuned into.
I travelled on a new bus route today, fancy
new buses with comfortable leather seats and televisions, in both directions
the journey was mostly populated with teenagers travelling to and from college.
I haven’t been teenager for quite some time now, emotionally it was a lifetime
ago at least .When your teenager your totally unaware that anything you say or do
might seem utterly ridiculous to people that little bit older than .You live in
a bubble of teenage hood, never really thinking that one day your going to be
that twenty something sitting at the back of bus quietly laughing at how ridiculous
you sound. If I could meet myself at seventeen now, I would no doubt cringe at my behaviour.I wore some shocking outfits that stick out in my memory and was generally
an annoying little trollop but at the time? I probably thought I was
pretty darn awesome.
Adults tend to lump teenagers into one
large often derogatory group but what I observed in my idle eavesdropping showed
just how different they are and how our first impressions can be totally wrong
.Being social science minded ( even know I graduated a few ago now it still
fascinates ) .I’m interested in how we end up in our little boxes ,what
processes did we got through to become the ‘indie ‘ ,’nerds’ or the ‘chav’s’
.They were all the same once , just little kids running round the playground or
nursery but they evolve to be totally different somehow. Obviously I know it's a whole huge range of factors that make us the people we become as adults but it is fascinating nevertheless.
Tales
from my eavesdropping
On my outward journey, two boys got on probably around 16/17, acne and patchy beards dressed not very fashionably .You
would instantly have named them nerds if you were being stereotypical, it
turned out this pair were the top of the nerd tree .They proceeded to have a
full on discussion about the various models of local buses, when they came into
commission and about the demise of a bus they were ‘sad to see go’ .I was glad that they had found each to discuss there
passion for first buses with..
The journey was home was even more packed
with teenagers ,as it was later in the afternoon .A group of four got on ,they
were dressed a lot more fashionably and some carried guitars .They talked about
music the whole time . They spent the whole journey trying to out “I listen to
be most obscure music “each other, and going on about how non mainstream there
were .I found it particularly amusing when one proclaimed he hated indie kids
.Pot kettle black?
The last pair to join the bus was what
anyone now would call “chavs” although. I’m so old they were called “townies”
when I was teenager .Tracksuits and dirty caps ,even neck tattoos despite still
having baby faces .They sat right next me and instantly begin educating me in
the latest way to get high ,although I think I may have missed what the vital element
was because ,since when has
- Two Ibuprofen
- 4 tablespoons of sugar
- Hot water
Got any one high for two days? so answers on a postcard if your clued up on this kind of thing because I was intrigued. The interesting thing was ,that as soon as these kids got on the bus I labelled them as something ,it's natural it's what we do as human beings . We have preconceived ideas about people almost instantly .In end the indie kids with their nice clothes got off the bus at the worse part of town ,than cap sporting drug taking boys Says a lot about judging a book by it's cover.
I felt like I’d seen such a cross section
of society today, just on one bus journey .Like a little microcosm .Just some thoughts I had and felt like writing down , I know most people reading this won't get it and will think I was perving on teenagers:
( Don't get me started on this ,I was on my way to a meeting about my new museum job which will obviously involve a lot of interaction with children ,so naturally we were passed a long document about appropriate interaction with children that is just how the world is today ).
PEOPLE WATCHERS OF THE WORLD UNITE !!
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