people-watching

i don't people watch as much as i eavesdrop. gotta know if someone's gonna suddenly decide to go on a rampage and kill stuff. you never know.
 
I always watch people. It's second nature as a writer-type. I don't even have to have them in my linear sight to "watch them."

Usually, because it's the way I am, I watch people to see if they're happy or not. Well, sometimes I watch them to see if one of their traits would fit nicely into the characters that I'm creating.

A lot of the times little instances like a child crying at the grocery store because her mother won't buy the Fruit Loops wind up in my work.
 
how much do you think you can learn about a person without (or before) actually interacting with them?
 
Watching people comes naturally to me -- I find myself observing without even consciously making the decision to. But unlike some other people in this thread, I don't analyze people. I don't try to figure out their motivations or characteristics or what type of person they are. I just simply observe. For me, it's analogous to immersing myself in a work of art without trying to assign it some sort of underlying meaning. I don't have to know what something means to feel an emotional connection or find it aesthetically pleasing. Most of the time, just that something exists is more than enough.
 
Sonyab said:
*watches*
I normally pay attention and analyze, analyze, analyze. People are neat animals. I was someplace yesterday and a couple was walking by the female said "what do you want to do" and in the next breath said "lets do something we haven't done before". I thought to myself, then you aren't really asking him what he wants to do and how it was passive aggressive. Why ask, I thought to myself. Perhaps to reinforce some idea that you really weren't being bossy because you asked? I pondered this concept of asking but not asking for awhile. These are the things that run thru my head.
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+1.

Also, I often don't do both listening and seeing at the same time. So I either listen, or I observe. I often do the former to my friends (whom I know the voice), and the latter, to strangers (whom I can only see, most of the time)

when I'm truly engaged..I can't observe as much as I'd like.
 
Ooooh I play this game with my friends when we go abroad~ ! We're like looking at people and gossiping out loud about them in dutch so they have no clue what we're saying~ they then turn around and the random laughter and look all confused :D....?

I think that people don't like what we do in general hihihih okieeee I knooow but it's so fun~ we do it in a very merry way ~ no harm intended :P aaaahhhh :mhula:
 
I just do it. It's not intentional, I never stare, not eavesdrop on purpose. If I'm sitting in a caf
 
I people-watch quite a bit. Whenever I am around people, actually. I believe it is not too difficult to pick up on relationships between people and nuances of intimacy within groups. I think picking up on things one relates to can be quite simple, as well, such as an introvert understanding another introvert's introspective tendencies. And I think I usually have an idea of how people are feeling, not that I always understand why they are feeling that way.

I think you have to be careful, though. Usually, when people-watching, you are observing your 'subjects' in a single environment. People behave differently in different environments. You're also limited because, as a spectator, you cannot significantly influence your 'subject' or the environment. You can only observe and make inferences based on what information is made available to you, and you have no way of knowing if you're making the right inferences. (e.g. There's a lot that affects a person's behavior that you'll never know about.)

Besides, I think you can 'know' a person for a really long time and never truly know them. It's all relative.
 
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Yeah I people watch constantly.
What surprises me about people is how oblivious they are to how much info they are just giving away in public.
All it takes is a careful listener and it's amazing how much info you can gather on total strangers.

When I people watch I want to know what the person's story is. If they have a trait that jumps out at me like sad eyes... I want to figure out why. If I see a girl alone with a book at a cafe eating alone. I like to figure out if she's content to be alone or wishes she had someone with her.
stuff like that.
 
I usually do this at the coffee shop on my days off. I bring a book or my laptop which will engage the lions share of my attention, but I do end up trading stealthy glances with everyone else who isn't involved in conversation while we hunch at our tables.
 
Whiskey said:
Yeah I people watch constantly.
What surprises me about people is how oblivious they are to how much info they are just giving away in public.
All it takes is a careful listener and it's amazing how much info you can gather on total strangers.

When I people watch I want to know what the person's story is. If they have a trait that jumps out at me like sad eyes... I want to figure out why. If I see a girl alone with a book at a cafe eating alone. I like to figure out if she's content to be alone or wishes she had someone with her.
stuff like that.
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I do that too. I walked into class early a week ago and these two girls were already in there.. so it was just the three of us. I sat there and pretended to read a book (because I'm all kinds of creepy like that) and eavesdropped. They were talking about some night out and when they each got home. The one said she didn't get home til three. Then she hesitated and said, "I met a man." The other girl just steamrolled over that statement as if she hadn't heard it. I couldn't help wondering about the two of them for a minute or two.

Or if I'm at a restaurant with someone and the conversation is lagging I try to discreetly read other patrons lips if their facial expressions seem angry or sad.. It's a compulsion!
 
People watching in the college mess halls is really easy. But i guess i do it quite a bit because when i look around at a room full of people i kind of just start judging everyone in the room individually.
 
*Continues to watch people go through their daily life and picks up on certain things they do unconsciously.*

I love people watching.
 
I people watch all the time. I'm creepy. When I'm on the bus, I find myself automatically following the conversations around me. I often want to jump into their conversations, but I can't because it seems to awkward. Maybe that's why INFJs are bad at making friends?
 
I always people watch... whether I'm in town or at school, even if I know or don't know the person, I always people watch xD if I'm in town, when I walk passed someone I try and guess what kind of a life they might lead... or what kind of personality they have xD t'is quite fun ^^
 
I don't, people are boring. I do sometimes look at them while imagining scenarios that they are unknowingly taking part in.
 
sopphey said:
I always watch people. It's second nature as a writer-type. I don't even have to have them in my linear sight to "watch them."

Usually, because it's the way I am, I watch people to see if they're happy or not. Well, sometimes I watch them to see if one of their traits would fit nicely into the characters that I'm creating.

A lot of the times little instances like a child crying at the grocery store because her mother won't buy the Fruit Loops wind up in my work.
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I make it a habit of grabbing whatever a kid is crying about and putting it in my basket. I just love to see the expression on the kid's face when I grab what they are whining about. I usually on do it when they are between the ages of like 6 to 10 though. Does that make me a bad person?:m075:
 
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