Community Observation Paper

A community, a complex term that often times elicits various feelings and definitions, generally implies that there are relationships between a group of people that share some common goals, values, the same geographical location, or, perhaps a way of life that reinforces one another. In a community, members choose to associate with, or connect to each other. However, it is only when we take a step back from the activities in our life’s, do we recognize reality and witness the social interactions that occur around us every day. The overarching purpose of this assignment was to go out into the community on two separate occasions to observe the social interactions- paying close attention to evidence of social networks, excluded or exclusive communities,

During the first observation, the majority of the individuals appeared to be students besides many of the construction workers and a few other individuals who appeared older. The second observation appeared to mostly be students besides a couple of families and a few older individuals. Furthermore, there seemed to be almost an equal amount of males and females during both time periods and there were many more couples during the second observation. In regards to race and ethnicity, the vast majority of the individuals observed were Caucasian, however, I also observed quite a few Asian and Indian individuals. Rarely did I see individuals of the African American ethnicity. I found it interesting that many of the groups were comprised of individuals of the same race or ethnicity- rarely did I see a group that was comprised of individuals of various races and

I also expected to see a lot more people being to themselves during the first observation rather than more people interacting with one another since it was during the day time on a Monday- a time when many individuals’ busy schedules include class, homework, and work. However, I was not surprised that there was a lot of social interaction during the second interaction because it was at a time and location where the restaurants and bars elicit such interactions. Out of all of the social interactions that I witnessed, I particularly enjoyed seeing the interaction between the construction workers and the students. This was evidence that we as humans are still willing to share in social interactions with those who are not in our exclusive communities. It was also evidence that people with likely different social networks will intermingle, maybe even interlinking their social networks at some point. While I did not hear the extent of the conversation, it is possible that they could have been speaking about their occupations or sharing their knowledge about an available