I went to the cafe again on Friday October 12 to do some more observation. I went later at night, from 6:26-7:17pm, so it was a different atmosphere than my first visit. It was a slow night, which was to be expected since the majority of the students left on campus are residents. It's so empty that it actual starts to get cold due to the lack of body heat in the room. It felt weird being there, though, because I felt like I was spying on people while observing their activities because there wasn't much else to focus on.
As I reflect over my observations, I can begin to sense unity and tension in the cafe, however, the two seem to blur together when trying to figure out what's going on. There is tension in the sense that there are a lot of things happening at the same time, yet there is unity there because each thing that is going on has connections to multiple people that are there. For instance, you have people using the computers, eating, doing homework, and sitting on the couches, quite a variety of activities, yet each person that can be classified into one of those areas, creating a sense of unity in the sense that all of those people there chose the cafe to do whatever it is they are doing. Sure, some people might have there own reasons, but those reasons are probably similar between most of the people doing the same things, creating that unity that I hope to discover.
As I start to create some ideas and questions about the cafe, I begin to realize that they might be a little biased. Since I am a resident on campus, I have my own reasons to go to the cafe, along with some of my friends. With that, I see myself starting to assume that most of the people at the cafe are there for the same reasons I would be if I were doing the same activity. I also notice myself assuming that certain people are either residents or commuters depending on what they are doing. Once I start talking to those people and finding out for sure, then hopefully it will clear up my biasedness and provide me with a better pool of data and information.
I'm interested: how do you figure who is a resident as compared to a commuter? Also, the part about the cafe getting cold because of the lack of body heat made me chuckle. x)
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I really like the font of your header at the top of the page.
I too am interested how you differentiate between a resident and commuter. I also like how you are making an effort to visit the cafe at different times of the day. I think this creates more depth to you fieldsite and it is just interesting to see the difference between what the cafe is like during the eventing as opposed to daytime.
ReplyDeleteI am interested to see the bigger connection (if any) between the residents and commuters. I would like to see a comparison of the different things you see and the things that make it seem like they are either commuter or resident.
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