Nah, everybody does 'people watching'. Some do it unconsciously, some do it on purpose. I do both. It's fun.
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You ever look at cars passing by..
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Nah, everybody does 'people watching'. Some do it unconsciously, some do it on purpose. I do both. It's fun.
I never knew there was a name for this.
I did know The Stereophonics did a great song about it called "Traffic" (not such a great video).
http://youtu.be/A3DCPiEE1Vc
I did know The Stereophonics did a great song about it called "Traffic" (not such a great video).
http://youtu.be/A3DCPiEE1Vc
All the time.
When I'm bored one day, I'm gonna follow a random person to their final destination
Yeah I do it from time to time.
I like this. This would make a great animated wallpaper
Sometimes I do. Wondering where they are headed.. why they are going there.. It's interesting and scary at the same time.
phxxBullet
Banned
I always do that. Sometimes I i feel really awkward when I stare into a parked car and there's someone inside who then stares back. But that can be funny too haha
Have you ever pressed your hand against the car windshield?
I need to know what happens.
Boss Mog
Member
I do a similar thing while looking at the stars and wonder what the planets orbiting them look like and if any of them have life, if any of them have sentient life and if so are their societies just as crappy as ours or better or worse. And most importantly I think is there somebody there, on those planets, that is looking as the stars and thinking about the exact same things as me.
It is an extremely crazy prospect that the majority of people we ever meet our entire lifetimes it'll be through passing by them in various places. Some of those faces we'll only ever see once in our entire lifetime and our life, despite being amazingly important to us is something completely unimportant to them.
I never really thought like this until recently, but to everyone else we're basically an NPC in an RPG who has very limited dialogue if not none at all and we make no impact whatsoever in their grand scheme of things. It's somewhat sad, somewhat terrifying and somewhat amazing all at the same time.
I never really thought like this until recently, but to everyone else we're basically an NPC in an RPG who has very limited dialogue if not none at all and we make no impact whatsoever in their grand scheme of things. It's somewhat sad, somewhat terrifying and somewhat amazing all at the same time.
Almost all the time. Not just with people in the cars, but with any strangers passing by when I'm in a public places.
Never knew there's a word for it.
Yeah I do it from time to time.
Never knew there's a word for it.
Twenty7KVN
Member
I do this all the time.
sixteen-bit
Member
Not really. It's not that I don't care it's that It's none of my business. Also, typically when I do look at the car next to me at a stop light it's some disgusting motherfucker picking their nose.
PS3GamerKyle
Member
No, I look at the cars, not the people in them.
Walking around, yeah I think about it sometimes.
BolognaSoup
Member
I have started looking over at other drivers on the road and it's absolutely frightening how many are staring at their stupid phones.
I saw two middle-aged white men shivering in a black van this morning. They were both bone-thin, and shirtless, chattering their teeth in 75 degree weather. This was in the parking lot of a golf course at 9 AM. Both guys had shaved heads, and the van was splattered with paint and had no windows.
I'm not really sure what was going on.
I'm not really sure what was going on.
Rhomega Beta
Member
Not cars, but looking at nighttime cityscapes. Who's in that lit-up office? What's their story?
There's not. That image is just hipster shoegaze bullshit.
At times I have my finger like knuckle deep in my nose because of an annoying booger and I realized that everyone on the 101 can see me... but then I say fuck it because I'm never going to see these people again so I keep trying to knock out that one booger.
What do I care what people see for 20 seconds.
What do I care what people see for 20 seconds.
Calamari41
41 > 38
I don't really do this with people in general, but I am keenly aware that they are doing it with me when I am checking out at the grocery store with nothing but a plunger.
All the time! For as long as I can remember I've wondered about the story of random people. Everybody is coming from somewhere and going somewhere. They see the world from their own eyes just like I do. I wonder how often people see me and wonder about my story?
Pai Pai Master
Banned
I do this at the airport. Peoplewatching like a motherfucker, always curious about where they're headed.
Yeah I do it from time to time.
That's a fantastic piece. Thanks for sharing.
I think things like this all the time. I had to take my wife to the ER the other night after a minor traffic accident and we sat there talking about wondering what all of their stories were, why they were there, the pain they may be going through, etc...
It's kinda like when I watch an old movie, something from way back, and the fact that most, if not all of them, are dead always crosses my mind at some point. It's morbid, I know, but I can't help it. What a great story, such an emotional experience they are sharing with me, but here I am watching them having such a great time, but they are now gone, all gone. Nothing more than frames of film passing by over and over. It's almost as if when the credits roll, so does their lives.
It also pains me to imagine all of the wasted talent, even perhaps something of my own. Things people never imagined they could do but never attempted it. This guy, that guy, myself, could be the greatest actor, musician, writer, athlete or whatever of all time but it never happened for one reason or another. It happens every day, and it's a weird feeling.
It's kinda like when I watch an old movie, something from way back, and the fact that most, if not all of them, are dead always crosses my mind at some point. It's morbid, I know, but I can't help it. What a great story, such an emotional experience they are sharing with me, but here I am watching them having such a great time, but they are now gone, all gone. Nothing more than frames of film passing by over and over. It's almost as if when the credits roll, so does their lives.
It also pains me to imagine all of the wasted talent, even perhaps something of my own. Things people never imagined they could do but never attempted it. This guy, that guy, myself, could be the greatest actor, musician, writer, athlete or whatever of all time but it never happened for one reason or another. It happens every day, and it's a weird feeling.
PSYGN
Member
When I feel stressed, I like to close my eyes in bed and in movie fashion, continuously pull away from myself in a birds-eye view, from myself, to room, to home, to neighborhood, to city, clouds, and eventually space to where I am not even a microscopic speck on the blue ball. And I realize that I am not alone in this and there are many people who are stressing or suffering greater. It's part of the human experience. I don't know why it helps me cope, but I do that a lot.
As for the topic, yes I do look at others and briefly imagine how their lives are, but usually when I'm sitting around waiting for someone to show up.
As for the topic, yes I do look at others and briefly imagine how their lives are, but usually when I'm sitting around waiting for someone to show up.
Yeah I do it from time to time.
Thank you for this. I learned a new and pretty awesome word today!
As others have mentioned, it's a made up word, picked up from a website called
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (DoOS).
They have a lot of interesting made up words there with similarly lengthy definitions.
http://niel.delarouviere.com/2013/06/curious-case-word-sonder/
Red Liquorice
Member
that1dude24
Member
i look at the plants, the insects, the multitudes of biological creatures we try so very hard to exclude from our social machinations and wonder how we can see ourselves so exceptional
Horseticuffs
Full werewolf off the buckle
Hey, that's a really beautiful practice.
Orbis Tabula
Member
Yeah I do it from time to time.
I'm not sure if this is a real word, though.
By real word I mean, I don't think it's actually ever meant this historically, I think someone recently made it up. However, since that's sort of how new words are made, I take no issue with it. It's a good word for a real phenomenon and it sounds like what it is. My real complaint is that is presented like a dictionary definition and then devolves into poetry. No dictionary would actually carry that as the definition. Dictionaries don't use metaphor and weird rhetorical devices to explain definitions, at least not ones that I've seen. But whatever, no fun allowed and all that.
I definitely do this sort of shit all the time. Like every person lives a life as complex and confusing as every one else and every person has their own reasons for every action they take. It's crazy.
Ooh, yeah, this. Scares the shit out of me. I avoid those people like I would a drunk driver.
Yeah and I'm like this
I'm fairly certain this is the first time in at least five years that I have seen the unedited version of this .gif.
Think about it this way... you're nothing more than an "extra" for hundreds of people (for the rest you don't even exist). You're an important person for just a few, otherwise you are just there sometimes, but otherwise...
It's quite some massive scale thing when you think about it. That guy that one day you saw tripping and almost falling on the street, and how you laughed about it... for him you don't even exist, and he's living his own complex life without even caring about you.
It's quite some massive scale thing when you think about it. That guy that one day you saw tripping and almost falling on the street, and how you laughed about it... for him you don't even exist, and he's living his own complex life without even caring about you.
Horseticuffs
Full werewolf off the buckle
I agree to this point. The animated gif is pretty, and nice to read, but doesn't do Sonder any favors in being taken seriously. I'd say something like "Sonder- A conscious understanding that each individual leads as rich an internal life as the observer" or something to that effect.
George Claw M.D.
Member
What about cars/people you see everyday during your commute to/from work? You start to recognize that the same person(s) must live near you and work near you, because you take the same commute every morning and see them on the way home, too. Where do they live and where do they work? For all you know they could live a block over from you! Is her/her job more fulfilling/rewarding than yours, that their commute is more worthwhile? Are you traveling the same distance for half the pay as this person who makes same daily trek? Do you ever consider following them to their destination, so you can ask, "Hey, I noticed we commute the same way at the same time every day. Wanna carpool?"
Dark Octave
Banned
It's easy to assume most people are just going to work and back, the grocery store, the beach, visiting a friend or family. I don't really find it that wonderful or magical. Just people living their boring (for lack of a better word) lives and telling a similar story to mine.
Horseticuffs
Full werewolf off the buckle
Where does Turbo Teen fit into all of this?
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