“That's a funny thing to say to a stranger in an elevator!”

“That's a funny thing to say to a stranger in an elevator!”

Written and observed by Tara Giddings

To a person who just ran up a hundred stairs an elevator is a magical thing, the perfect innovation, mankind’s greatest example of modernity. To a person standing in an elevator for 30 minutes an elevator is, well, boring, dull, uneventful (how many more ways can I say this? I mean I had a while in there to figure it out.). Either way the elevator is a perfect example for how lazy humans have become, not just physically but socially. Which is probably due to how busy humans feel they need to be. If you feel you need to take classes so close together that you barely have time for a break, an elevator becomes that. From my experience most people don't feel the need to talk in an elevator, especially when they are in their own world surrounded by technology. They come in, look at you, then resume staring at their phones. Perhaps to avoid in person social contact? Well I don't know, they had headphones in so I didn't ask and they successfully avoided talking to me. Now, not everyone does that in an elevator, a few kind hearted souls do say hello before resuming ignoring anyone around them. But they do not act open to a conversation, not generally smiling or making eye contact, and again we avoid real life interaction. One person who actually did have a conversation with me, a nice woman who was somewhere over 40, wanted to make sure I was ok, after noticing I was just riding up and down in the elevator. Was she simply one of the few people who are social enough to start a conversation with a stranger, or a product of another generation?

Last year a man, also over 40, told me in his generation people would smoke in forced social situations like an elevator. So, maybe technology is not the cause of less social interaction, but the desired product of humans longing for an excuse to not interact. To be fair, some people still do interact, even those in my generation. A girl replied hi back to me and then said I was in both her French and Lit class, and feeling slightly guilty for not at all recognizing her I replied something vague and enthusiastic before she said goodbye to me and the elevator. Some people in groups, many times speaking in other languages, talked amongst themselves “come on kiddos, let’s get in the elevator.” Most people did not take notice of me as I stood in the corner, sure of lack of going anywhere. One boy smiled at me, then stared at his phone and did not notice that he missed the 4th floor and went back down to the 1st, only to have to go up again. Was he waiting on the cue from another person to leave, too distracted by his colorful screen? Now at this point, other than going to G floor and having the doors close without anyone getting in, this was the most exciting things to happen. There was some entertainment later as a boy enthusiastically told his friend that he would get herpes from drinking out of a used USF water bottle he had found in a classroom. This prompted a girl to interject and say she owns the same bottle, getting the reply “Well do you have herpes?”

Then my wonderfully social friend Reyes steps in, excited to find me in the elevator after I'd told her about my assignment. She brought life to the elevator scene, chatting with me as well as with whoever entered. We talked to a woman, during her trips down and back up, who was struggling with her department’s students feeling they desperately needed to change classes and keep up with a busy schedule. Reyes told a sweet blonde girl about how cute she looked her overalls, and after initiating conversation we were now friends, chatting about the fact her overalls were new and where she bought them. Reyes even told the others riding in the elevator that we were doing a project observing how people act in an elevator, bringing up mixed responses. Some people laughed, some awkwardly looked away, but in general they became more eager to talk. One girl said she is generally social but not in cramped areas. Another girl told me elevators feel more awkward due to the fact that the social interaction seems forced. A woman voiced an idea I had in my mind, that people don’t interact because they are thinking about their own busy lives. However, around friends, or someone interested in their lives, people lose track of their day and begin to feel like themselves, they begin to interact.

In the sleek metallic elevator in Cowell Hall the smell changes to the cologne of whoever is riding in it. The atmosphere changes alongs with the rider, from ignored to cared for, how I felt and how the others in my elevator adventure felt, was based on the attitude of those riding along.  I smiled and said hi, but I did not generally begin a conversation, feeling my role, or inclination, is to simply observe. Yet, having one person interested in the lives of the many riders getting out of class, changes things. Someone simply initiating conversation makes the elevator atmosphere feel more open to everyone, not just a place to ignore their busy day in the outside world.

Let us not forget as one girl stated the most basic reason for taking the elevator, “I just don’t have the energy for the stairs.”