Dammit, I waste my first post back screwing up the coding, and then waste my 1,000th post whining to correct it. What a day.
-foxy
I have a terrible time peeing in public. My life has been so much better since I’ve gotten into the habit of using the stalls.
I can’t agree that the evidence in this thread is evidence for people being sheep, and I guess the reason is awfully ironic: it’s the assumption that others are independent that helps to cause the sheepish behavior. An interesting one in college was a group of students waiting for the next prof (or whoever) to unlock the door to a presumably-locked classroom, only to discover it’s unlocked when someone tries the door. I didn’t find myself waiting because that’s what others were doing; I waited because I assumed that someone would have tried the door already.
Lines & stuff like that are generally pretty good indicators of what’s what, and that’s why pathological cases, such as starting phony lines at an amusement park, are easy to create.
An example one can frequently see is where a chairlift at a ski hill has multiple lines and one of the lines is entirely empty. If one assumes that people aren’t completely stupid, then it may be empty for a reason. I could go and check it out, but in doing so I’ll not only be embarrassed if it doesn’t pan out, but I’ll also lose a spot in the line to all the new people who joined while I was being adventurous.
Don’t get me wrong: the examples are amusing to be sure. But I do take them w/ a grain of salt.
The door thing happens at the high school I went to (but won’t be going to next year. Yay!) a lot also.
I disagree. Seems the opposite really. People will form a line, if they have something to define that line. For example those rope thingies used in grocery stores, fast fooderies, amusement parks etc. or some people already standing in line (like ronincyberpunk and gang). Without anything like that they won’t form a line even when it is appropriate. A while ago, I had to go pick up some pills from a pharmacy. In front of the one open window were no rope thingies. The people waiting before me had formed into something resembling a semicircle more than a line. But that’s just one example. Maybe I’m wrong.
Sometimes, but I’ve never seen a free-for-all even when there isn’t a line. People seem to keep tabs on who is where in the order and tend to respect that. YMMV.
Your point is well-taken. Of course, I would probably be the one to try the door, but then I’d also be the one to lose my place in line at the chair lift. I’m just not one to take anyone’s (or even any group’s) word for anything.
But really, that doesn’t explain the example I gave of people standing in line at a movie theater concession stand, when there is one register with nobody waiting, a friendly cashier calling and calling that “I can help someone down here”, and nobody leaves the line they’re in for a shorter wait, or, if your the first to move over to the line, no wait at all. They won’t move until the cashier at the register they’re in line for shoos them (herds them) away to the register with no line. Hence my statement that people are cattle, not sheep.
Another example from the theater - this was the year Home Alone was the big holiday season blockbuster, and we were showing it on two screens in a three-screen theater, with a fifteen minute lag between start times. So, they would come in for the 1:00 showing, no problem, that was the theater straight ahead with the yellow sign, people would just automatically go there. The ones who came in for the 1:15 showing were another mantra. I’d take the ticket and say, “Go to your left, it’s the theater with the blue sign.” Next customer “Go to your left, it’s the theater with the blue sign.” On and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. A good half of the people would go into the theater, the one straight ahead with the yellow sign, then come back to me and say, “I went into the theater, and the movies a half hour into it/half over”. I would then redirect them to the correct theater. Thing was, the people coming in behind them wouldn’t follow the lead and gotoyourleftitsthetheaterwiththebluesign. I would be tearing their ticket as I was telling the people who they had just seen come back out of the theater straight ahead with the yellow sign to gotoyourleftitsthetheaterwiththebluesign, I would tell them to gotoyourleftitsththeaterwiththebluesign, and they would still go straight ahead into the theater with the yellow sign.
Like I said, cattle.
At least sheep can be led.
I thought of this thread last night, particularly the “getting people to stare at a blank wall” thing. I heard one of my cats doing something and then saw the second cat go to investigate. So I figured I’d better see what they were getting in to. There was nothing there. So the two cats and I, following very sheep-like, stared at a blank spot on the wall.
It’s bad when you follow other people in doing something stupid, but when you follow your cats, it’s a sure sign of sheep/cattle mentality.
Baaaa.
I’ve only seen people clapping when it’s been a rough trip and the landing is made in bad weather.
I thought it was done to cover up the sound of the farting because everyone’s butt had been sucking wind on the final approach. At least, in my case it was.
What?
Even in a library, sometimes the sheep come to graze.
Once, when I was still working in the college library, I had a group of students who were having a meeting in one of our upstairs conference rooms. Not hard to find these, the upstairs was one large room (housing the bulk of the collection), with smaller study rooms, and conference rooms on its perimeter.
It started when the first girl approached me. "Where is the (some Greek letters) meeting?"
Me, looking in the scheduling book: "Upstairs, conference room."
Girl: "Where's that?"
Me: "Upstairs (pointing to the door to my right labeled "stairs"), turn left at the top, it's on the far left of the room"
Girl, now steps away from the desk and begins milling around. Can one person mill around? No matter, she soon had company. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes I gradually had about two dozen students all of whom approached the desk, asked the same question and joined the first girl. NONE of them actually seemed to get the idea to actually go upstairs, several of them approached me more than once asking for directions. They really did look like a herd of "not that bright, even for sheep," sheep.
Finally the first girl returned, rather upset that she couldn't find the conference room.
Girl: Where is the (Eata Lotta Pi) meeting."
Me (professional demeanor has broken down at this point) "Go UP THE STAIRS, there’s a big room, look to the left of that big room, there is a door labeled “conference room” go in.
I was pretty sure I was eventually going to have to send a student worker to lead these people out of the library.
The worst part is that the organization that these merino's belonged to was and "honor society" :eek:I agree Strinka.
At the finish line for the Boston Marathon every year (but this was years ago, so it may have changed by now) the sidewalks were very wide and accomodating of the crowds… except for one spot where a cafe/restaurant type place had outdoor seating. They used railings and planters to wall off the part of the sidewalk containing their tables and chairs, leaving a narrow corridor for people to walk through next to the curb. When I say narrow, it is enough for 4 people to walk side by side (if they are friendly) and this was perfectly fine the rest of the year, but on Marathon day, the sidewalks are packed with crowds of people all walking from place to place.
On that day, there would inevitably be a MASS of people at one end trying to cram them selves into the small space fitting 5 in a space barely comfortable for 4. They would fit into the entrance of the corridor 3 or 4 abreast, leaving barely room for a single file on the left coming the opposit way. Those poor souls (coming the other way) would have to fight for every step forward they took, until they excaped the bottleneck.
Now, as they walked through the bottleneck corridor, the crowd that started 3-4 wide, would gradually be forced back to 3 wide, then 2, until finally there was a single file of them having to push against the crowd of people moving the other way. And in case it’s not clear by now, that crowd moving the other way would be 3-4 wide at this point, having just entered the corridor, with a mass of them gathered there blocking those coming out. Inevitably, those who pushed hardest to get in (blocking those trying to get out) would also be the loudest to complain at the mass of people blocking them.
Here is a representation of movement in that corridor…
<<<<<<<<<<<<
>>><<<<<<<<<
>>>>>><<<<<<
>>>>>>>>><<<
>>>>>>>>>>>>
I worked for several years in a shop right next to that bottle next and knew that on Marathon day, it was faster to circle the entire block than to try to squeese through that corridor.
If people really knew how to line up without being told (or shown) there wouldn’t even have to be a wait to get through.
Mooo… Mooo…
I just wanted to add that the only reason ‘being a sheep’ is considered a bad thing is because we all grew up in cultures that preached tolerance, free will and diversity, and not following those ideals of free will and individuality sets someone apart from the crowd. In Prussia 300 years ago being an independent thinker was considered a horrid idea, and it is in some religious communities all over the world. Can’t escape that biological conformity I’m sorry to say. The best you can do it use it responsibly.