#SelfieEveryday

Cortez | Hsieh | Nalupta | Peren | Soliman

SA 21 - P

In this experiment, we decided to break the social norm of respecting a person’s personal space. Personal space is defined as the region or area around the person that he or she feels is psychologically theirs. It is an invisible barrier that separates a person from other members of society which is to say that there is an avoidance of social interaction in that particular area. An abrupt breach of this space may be cause of a person’s anxiety, discomfort, anger, etc., depending on the person. With the differentiation of reactions in mind, we wanted to see the kinds of reactions that will come about from people.

To do this, we took “selfies” with different people in certain parts of the campus. A selfie is the act of taking one’s picture with the use of one’s cellphone by his or her self. It is usually done alone but for the purposes of the experiment, we did it in groups and in pairs as no breaching would come about if our subject was to do a selfie voluntarily and by themselves. The selfie would be our way to invade the individual’s personal space and from there capture their reaction not only by first hand observation but in a picture as well. Our subjects would comprise of students, faculty members, and maintenance staff for a wider possibility of reaction. The experiment was done in different parts of the school like the library, the library elevator, the cafeteria, and the walkways.

For the experiment, one reaction that is common among all of the people we did the experiment on is the initial shock. Each one showed this differently with different expressions, may it be “whoa”, “uy”, “what the” and so on, and various facial expressions, but all of them point toward manifestations of shock or surprise. This can primarily be attributed to the breaching of the norm of personal space, where one does not expect any form of contact especially in that way which was very abrupt, unexpected, and done without warning. Moreover, the way with which the personal space was violated also comes into play. A selfie is something one normally does with friends and is commonly announced with a request, may it be just a simple, “Picture tayo!” Therefore, for a person to declare a selfie with you out of nowhere, especially if the person is a complete stranger, would indeed probably cause the person to experience a state of shock.

Another interesting part of their reactions was how they responded after that initial sense of surprise where they were caught off guard. For our experiment, the people we did the experiment on can be divided according to their roles in the school, namely students, maintenance and staff, and people with authority; with each one having a unique follow up reaction.

         The most obvious choice for this breaching experiment is the students. The student population is the most in terms of number in campus, which is why they can be easily found anywhere. We decided to conduct the experiment in two areas – the 5th floor of the new Rizal library and along the corridor of Sec A.

          In the library, we approached two students who were seated in front of each other. We approached them from behind while they were talking and took the picture. At first they were both shocked but they reacted differently after realizing what was happening. The guy immediately bowed his head while the girl giggled and smiled at the camera.  After the picture was taken, the guy explained to us that he thought we were friends with the girl which is why he immediately shied away from the camera when we said “Selfie!”.

         The girl we met along the corridor of Sec A was equally as shocked when we took the picture. Upon hearing us say “Selfie!” and seeing the camera, the girl said “Ay! Nagulat naman ako!”. She initially stepped away from the camera but she somehow returned back, showing her willingness to be a part of the picture.

       Knowing that the people who were asking them to be a part of the selfies were also students, the participants were not as hesitant to join. There is an equal footing in role, so there is no division as to who is of higher position than the other. Although there is a common initial shock upon seeing the camera, the students were not so surprised with the request for the selfie. It is not uncommon in our generation to take selfies and this explains the students’ reactions. However, despite the selfies being a common occurrence nowadays, there is a norm that these selfies are taken only with people you are close with or people you at least know. This justifies the reaction of the guy in the library who immediately ducked upon realizing that it was a selfie. He assumed that we knew the girl he was with, which is why we wanted to take the selfie with her.

         Our second group of people can be classified under the role of maintenance and staff, men and women who more commonly work unnoticed in the campus, going by their duties with minimal to no contact with the students. More specifically, we were able to perform the experiment with a landscape maintenance man and a group of cafeteria personnel, both of which interestingly reacted quite similarly. First, they’d look up to see what was going. Then, upon realizing that we were trying to take a picture with them, both started laughing but at the same time looked away from the camera again and to an extent, tried to get out of the shot; a reaction quite unique from the other groups.

This can possibly be a reaction brought about by the norm set by their everyday duties and settings in the school. For the maintenance man, it can be said that interaction with students is not a common part of his everyday experience in his job, if at all. Despite being surrounded by students in Zen Garden, his focus was just on his work and the nearby students had no part in his own little world. As for the cafeteria personnel, if ever they do have any interaction with students, it must be quite minimal; just a transaction or a few words needed to accomplish their duties. Additionally,  they were having their lunch break at the time of the experiment meaning all the more they definitely weren’t expecting any interaction with students.

Their reaction to the sudden request for a selfie is quite indicative of this norm set on them. The fact that it was to be done with students possibly led them to being evasive as it’s not something they’re used to. I’m sure that if it were done with their peers, their reaction would have been very different and much more accommodating. But since there is a divide in roles between the maintenance and students, interaction between the two without prior warning is not easy to achieve. Given this, it can be said that their reaction reinforces the existing norms of personal space, and avoiding contact with members of the society that you have no business with. 

The last victim of the breaching experiment was a woman who is in her late 50s to early 60s, around 5’1” in height and wearing casual clothing (striped sleeveless shirt and khaki pants). While the victim was reading a newsletter and leaning against the bulletin boards near the cashier of the Ateneo, two of the group members approached her suddenly to take a selfie with her while saying, “Selfie!” In a puzzled and shocked voice, the woman asked, “Hey, what is this for?” A group member answered back and debriefed the victim that the group was conducting a breaching experiment for their sociology and anthropology class. Upon knowing this, the woman changed her tone of voice and sneeringly said, “Do you know who I am?” A group member answered back and said, “No.” The woman just walked away and mockingly repeated what the group member said which is, “No.”

This woman showed the most distinct reaction among all the victims of the breaching experiment. Instead of just smiling/laughing like most of the victims, this woman gave a negative reaction by condescendingly asking the group “Do you know who I am?” Due to the nature of this experiment, which is breaking norms, probably the woman became offended and considered it rude to take a picture with her without asking permission. Her negative reaction can also be attributed to the group disturbing her as she was reading something in the bulletin boards.

Her statement “Do you know who I am?” suggests the impression of how highly she thinks of herself, which is also a possibility of why she reacted this way. The group assumes that she has a high position in Ateneo that is why she was able to say this. She might have expected that no one will do this breaching experiment to her and when the group did, this caused her to react negatively. Hence, one can see that aside from norms, social positions can also affect how a person acts.

This woman is also the oldest of all the victims in the experiment and her age bracket can also be a factor in how she reacted. For the older generations, taking a selfie is not a normal conduct to do as compared to the younger generations today. Therefore, this possible expectation was violated in the experiment and may have cause the woman to react disapprovingly.

The woman’s negative reaction reinforces the norm of personal space as she found it disrespectful to take a selfie with her. Through breaching the norm of personal space or privacy by suddenly taking a picture with a person, indeed, certain norms are reaffirmed and are at play in our society.

Prior to conducting the experiments, we were excited but at the same time very hesitant and shy to start because we are not used to taking photos with random people in a public place but we wanted to find out how people would react to this deviance. It was not a comfortable thing to do since we were all shy in nature. We usually take selfies with our friends, blockmates, org mates, family members--- the people we’re close to, but not with random people we see in school. Also, the possibility of seeing these people again, probably be judged and react in a negative way, pushed us to be more hesitant in conducting the experiment. Before approaching the people, we would look at one another to see if someone would go ahead and approach the person or group of people. We made sure first that we had a plan of action before doing our selfie attacks on people. Such as who was staying at this side, who’s going to take the picture, etc. In this way, more or less we were able to take selfies with random people despite our hesitance and shyness.

The reactions of people are unpredictable. You may think that one would react in a certain way, but he or she can actually react in a totally different way than what you expected. It should be kept in mind that the reactions will most likely depend on the knowledge and understanding of your “victims.” In our experiment, the reactions of the students were always game and willing to take selfies with us because they more or less knew about taking selfies. The maintenance were shy but were still game and willing to take selfies. After a streak of consistent positive reactions, it was broken by the last victim which is an elderly woman who probably had no idea at all of what a selfie is.

Basing from this, in the younger generation and the lower class which is the maintenance, a deviance from the norm of having personal space is somewhat acceptable up to a certain extent. In the older generations where technology was not widely used for such behavior, the disruption of personal space is unacceptable and considered highly disrespectful. As a group, we learned that it is important to always be prepared with the various reactions from the different people. Some reactions may be favorable, while some may not be, but keep in mind that everything is for learning purposes and will contribute to the greater knowledge of Society.