Current Perspectives

People watching is endlessly fascinating. After talking about articles in the Sunday editions of the NY Times and Washington Post this morning the people watching article stuck out.

For the past three years I have read Postsecret, I have never read it religiously but I find the project itself to be an intriguing idea. To connect people in such an anonymous way that can still have such a large impact on so many people and in such personal ways is amazing.

Part of the people watching idea is about our desire to see people as they are when they are just able to be. It’s like the reality of watching another human being in their daily life is fascinating for us.  I think Postsecret has a similar quality to people watching.  People can read the postcards about really personal things from other people. I think that this might make some people think about how small the world is or how much people really are just people.  I feel like Postsecret might even be a variation of people watching.  When there is a secret that multiple people share or when you see someone do something that you’ve probably done a billion times it could make someone feel really connected to other people.

I think that our desire to observe ourselves is really interesting too. Animals watch each other to learn, we too learn by example and while watching people do things like theatre, TV, film, performance, and entertainment is one aspect of watching ourselves, it is interesting that we still want to see people in such an unassuming way, a way that is as real as just  observing the simple machinations that we do each day.