I Am a Self-Confessed People Watcher

As I sit in the library and look around, I have an epiphany – a moment of pure realisation… I have a serious case of People Watching Syndrome. I often find myself in a daze, analysing everybody around me. I’m not necessarily nosey, I’m not intrusive when it comes to other people’s business, but I am motivated by fascination. Human behaviour seriously interests me and I’m bound by an unconscious urge to analyse behaviour and pinpoint a causal explanation for it.

As a psychology student, I have an avid fascination with all things psychological (no surprises there). The human brain never fails to amaze me, science is constantly progressing and new facts emerge from the depths of the once unknown. For me though, I love studying behaviour and the reasons behind it. I love how people may act similarly but may have completely different motives. A basic example: one person may cry, motivated by happiness like when their child walks down the isle or they get the news they’ve been hoping for. However someone else may cry, in a similar way, but because they’re experiencing intense sadness over bad news or unsettling emotions. Same behaviour, opposite causes.

So here I am, in the library analysing the people around me and I realise there are 3 main categories of people: the populars, the procrastinators and the progressor .

The Populars: a group of like-minded females who use the library as a social hub. They all regroup in the library for a while, updating each other on the latest scandals and who’s slept with who and who is still a virgin. They laugh loudly, they talk loudly and they’re proud of it. Their presence must be known and it is known – it’s hard to ignore the blare of peroxide blond hair. They all look so similar, biological almost. There is nothing unique within this group of girls besides the guy they’re sleeping with (although this could be questionable).

The Procrastinators: these individuals came to the library with the intention to start their assignment that is attached to a looming deadline. They get their work out, even log onto a computer, but that is as far as their quest to completion goes. After this they resort to their phones for a solution, inspiration. They idly put in headphones and flick between Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in a fluid motion – and when nothing has changed they begin the process again. Their assignments haven’t progressed by even a full stop when they get up and leave the library and strangely they’re okay with that.

The Progressives: these are the anomalies. With the populars and the procrastinators, a very small amount of work is completed but with the progressives, they have actually come to the library to make use of it’s purpose – education. They come here and from the moment their butts hit the seat, to the moment it leaves it again, they work solidly. Like a well oiled machine. Briefly looking up to check the time is the only study break they allow themselves. They work continuously and systematically – it’s really quite mesmerising. I admire their hard work and stamina. They’re here to craft their future, they’re here to achieve.

Now, I find myself falling into the bracket of the procrastinators and I high five my fellow peers who also lack a serious drive to complete even a tiny proportion of work. I see myself in all of them and it strikes me that people may analyse my behaviour and see what I see when I look at these idle individuals.

Of course this is highly stereotypical of me – but there is also a lot of truth in what I’m writing. I genuinely find myself faced with these people daily. Yes, of course there are people who dabble in all of those categories but those were the key 3 I found myself drawn towards.

I am a people watcher, a chronic people watcher but rather than it being creepy or nosey, I find it quite endearing and educational. I learn a lot from analysing people who I see in public and I emphasise IN PUBLIC. People watching is perfectly legal and okay until it steps over the line of normality and you being watching people through their windows or purposely watching the same person over and over again (otherwise known as stalking).

Don’t be that person who sits there gawping at the same person and making them squirm uncomfortably. Yes you, I see you looking.

Stay rad,

Juno👽