Ethnography

Ethnography

I feel this may be a bit overdone but for my ethnography I decided to go to the Starbucks in Porter Ranch at about 9 o’clock in the evening. As I sat in the front of the store with my Venti green tea, I notice that despite being somewhat late in the evening there were a fairly large number of people here. The evening was warm and was made even warmer by all the people smoking less than 10 feet away from me. The scent of tobacco filled the air; yet, no one seemed to notice it, or for that matter care. What struck me as strange was the fact that this family- and I say family because they all seemed comfortable the way a family does when having a conversation at dinner- of about 6 or 7 were all smoking. The youngest person in that group seemed to be in their mid 30’s; he wore a nice long sleeve shirt with black jeans. The other men in that group all wore similar things, they seemed to be dressed in business suits, yet they wore them in a casual way, in a sort of more relaxed manner. The 2 women sitting at the table had short hair that did not go pass their check bones and wore colorful silk-like blouses. As they sat around this small table, it was pretty easy to distinguish the dominate couple. They sat close to one another and even in their older age had a youthful air about them, shown in the way they sat next to each other- he had his right arm would around her waist and with his left arm he gestured and held his cigarette. The wife, inconspicuously playing with her husband’s hand and the ring he had on, appeared rather bored with the conversation and found more interest in playing with his hand. The family was not speaking English, so I could not tell why she had a lack of interest; however, the rest of the family seemed to be enjoying themselves greatly. They would get excitedly loud and even stand up at times and say something to better emphasize their point. It seemed like a family reunion; they had been here since before I arrived and no one else around seemed to mind the excessive smoking and noise.

As a direct contrast to the large, loud family there were “computer loners,” these were much younger individuals and appeared to be “busy at work.” What exactly they were doing, I honestly cannot say. I did not want people to think I was observing them, but as I glanced at one of the “computer loners” screens it looked like he person was on YouTube. The thing that stood out about the computer loners was the fact that there were about 3 outside and 2 inside the store; and yet, none of them were together. Another thing that set them apart was their age. Out of all the computer loners no one seemed a day older than 24 and 3 out of 5 had Macbook’s. This group- unlike the family- was quiet, reclusive, young and alone. It seemed as if the older generation placed more value in face to face interaction while the much younger generation preferred to be connected to the internet doing whatever it is they do. From this small observation, it was obvious that the older generation valued that personal touch while the younger generation lacked intra-personal relationships- a typical stereotype, right?

Finally, we have the elderly couple. They came about 35 minutes after I had arrived but ever since they pulled up, something about them caught my attention. As they exited the car and walked up to the curb, he gave her a hand to stabilize herself while going up the curb. After they picked up their orders, she opened the door for him as he walked out with their drinks in hand. They sat to my left, oblivious to everyone else around them. He had white hair that he had just styled while she had short salt and pepper hair. I have to admit that out of everyone present that night they were the most peaceful ones. There was something special about them; they came off as more calm and relaxed and in no real hurry to finish anything. What intrigued me about them was the fact that they said so little but their silence was loaded with meaning. It was almost like a mutual understanding. They said very little but it seemed like that was all that needed to be said. They were here not to be seen in public nor have a long winded conversation but rather on a night out enjoying each other’s company. He sat facing her, though not always looking straight at her, with one hand around his drink and the other relaxed nearby. She sat across from him looking in the distance and occasionally at him. There was an instance in which she reached out and held his hand, they locked eyes for a brief period of time, but out of it came the most fulfilling look. The kind of look one gets when having a long, deep and enlightened conversation; all that was achieved through a single touch.
I left that evening rather happy about what I had seen. The younger generation had come off as colder and much more dependent on technology to make as well as maintain a connection. This group also managed to remain rather isolated from everyone else. The older generation was much more family orientated, they valued that intra-personal relationship of seeing, touching, smelling and spending time with their loved ones. And finally the elderly couple whom didn’t needs word to describe the lifelong feelings they have shared for each other. They valued each other’s companionship more than they would have others. As far as the evening goes, there wasn’t much of what you would call the “radical romantic.”

When compared to more extreme cases such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof we see that the idea of the “radical romance” is a lot more prevalent when it comes to these cases; the people that I observed where mild mannered and civilized; whereas, the characters portrayed in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are over dramatized fictional characters, they are caricatures of extreme romantic relationships.