Sociology in Everyday life. Social Sciences Essay.

SOCIOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Name:
Institution:
Course Code:
Date:
Over the summer, I worked in a restaurant in the city. Each day I met very different people and I observed their behavior and how they interacted with each other. There seemed to be forces that either ‘brought people together or repelled them against each other.’ I served as a cashier and from my position, I had a good view of the whole seating area and the street outside. I began analyzing the way people interacted with each other especially noting the difference they kept from each other. I observed their queueing, their seating mannerisms and personal and group behavior. I analyzed their behavior from different perspectives to see if they dictated any differences and or similarities.
As I observed people who came into the restaurant from the street, I saw that they ‘followed some unwritten rules.’ They all had similar mannerisms which they all adhered to and any deviation from the same raised eyebrows. For each takeaway customer, the procedure was, stand in line, place their orders, pay and wait for a few minutes for their order to be packaged, collect it and leave. There was a bench on which they could sit as they waited for their orders to be processed. Each customer seemed to want some personal space between him and the next person on the line and waiting bench. It seemed there was a relative distance between the customers in the line such that they never had a bodily contact. They maintained the same spacing between them uniformly throughout the time they spend inside the restaurant. As they were waiting to collect their orders, they seemed to maintain some distance between them whether seated or standing.
The waiting bench can accommodate nearly 10 people but it was hardly ever full to capacity. It was not designed such that it was ‘divided’ in a way everyone had a designated seating space on it. The customers sat such that only 6 people sat on it at a time without needing them already-seated customers to move to accommodate them. If a seventh person came along, they would at times squeeze to accommodate him/her but they never numbered more than seven people on that bench. If an eighth person wanted to seat, one person would opt to stand and wait for their order while standing. Most of the time the bench accommodated 6 people and the rest remained standing as they waited for their orders.
Groups showed a different ‘definition of personal space’ whenever they walked into the restaurant. The groups had some elements of homogeneity from their conversations. They either schooled or were schooling together, they were roommates, came from the same neighborhood etc. Most of the time, they placed similar orders with very minute variations. In some cases, one individual could place the orders while the rest remained seated or one person could pay for the rest. One or two people in the group would collect the orders and they would leave as a group. There was significantly less distance between them in the line as they waited to place their orders. They seemed to be maintained less distance amongst each other and chatted as they moved along the queue. When they sat on the bench, they squeezed such that th...