'People Watching-Harmless or Perverted'

Building from the previous article where one had a guide created for such a mundane ‘pass time’, this article explores almost the entirely opposite extreme, looking at people watching as something that might be perverted.

The article begins by saying, ‘watching people is pretty harmless right?’ and this is exactly what you’d think as one is simply watching from afar and even possible enjoying themselves, enjoying the past time and even possibly creating their own imaginary reality as I’d like to think. However, there are sides to it I haven’t spoken of, some of which I didn’t realise myself before reading this blog post.

She begins by talking about a guide that exists to people watching and even a game which decides whether a person is ‘teenage mum or sister’ and more which speaks to the idea of the imaginary reality one could make up in their heads that I spoke about which may or may not be the true reality. She shows how people watching whilst has been something that everyone has been doing for years has now been made out to be a ‘hobby’ and has so much hype around it before she truly speaks to the ‘perverted’ aspect of it that no one thinks of.

As she says it is a way to learn about one’s environment and surrounding culture but the other side of it that she speaks of. I can’t help but agree. People act differently when they know they’re being watched. For some, they might not feel awkward or be conscious of their behaviour until they have a moment where they catch someone watching them. However, for others who are conscious of themselves, possibly of their appearance or a behavioural trait, this moment where catch someone watching themselves may trigger insecurities or more. It could be simpler, having simply an embarrassing moment of someone watching you pick your nose as she mentioned but at the same time could possibly be much more deep seated as well.

I think in today’s world people care so much about their appearances, almost never going without a filter on a photo, behaving differently around certain people, not being themselves in order to please the person in front of them cause they might think they want them to be a certain way or look a certain way. Due to this, I don’t think people watching cannot always be as simple as it is supposed to be or made out to be. I don’t think its necessarily ‘perverted’ but can make a person deeply uncomfortable if ones staring constantly for a long period of time or if one is insecure in themselves or something similar on the same lines.

I still appreciate the simplicity of the past time and sometimes unconsciously have found myself caught in the act of ‘people watching’ but I think if it is being spoken about so much, guides being produced for it and all, people also need to speak about the flip side and be mindful. As a simple past time it works according to me, speaking about it so much and following a guide or labelling it this way although I personally think removes the fun and simplicity out of it and almost could even put pressure too for one to ‘people watch’ in a certain way.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/people-watching-harmless-_b_5560023

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