Making friends can be a difficult obstacle for many, but the city of Seattle is infamous for having a passive and distant community. The present study analyzed ways in which students at Seattle University interact with strangers, acquaintances, and friends on campus. This study proposes the following research question: “On Seattle University’s campus, how do students who are casual acquaintances encounter each other on campus in comparison to how they encounter strangers and friends?” This study finds that interaction with acquaintances made the majority of the participants feel happy and valued, while interactions with strangers made participants uncomfortable. Overall, the study found that Seattle University students are more likely to engage
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The study revealed the Seattle University students who participated in the survey were reluctant to interact with strangers, enthusiastic to interact with friends, and hesitant to interact with acquaintances, which reveals the “cliquey” social scene that was identified by the participants.
Key Words: Social Exchange Theory, college campus, Seattle Freeze
Introduction
Seattle is known for a lot of things, whether it is the coffee, the alternative rock music scene or its successful companies like Amazon or Microsoft. However, it’s also known for its distant and antisocial culture, best known as the “Seattle Freeze.” “The Seattle Freeze” is often characterized by the obstacle to turn relationships with acquaintances into genuine friendships outside of work and school. It’s difficult to determine where the Seattle Freeze originated from. The term was first coined by a Seattle Times journalist in 2005 (Sommerfeld 2005) but the phenomenon has actually been around for a while. In fact, it might have dated back to the mid 1940s. An excerpt from The Seattle Daily Times on February 1, 1946 said that “It was revealed what we had indeed suspected – that newcomers do not always find us altogether perfect; that we sometimes are neglectful of the
The study revealed the Seattle University students who participated in the survey were reluctant to interact with strangers, enthusiastic to interact with friends, and hesitant to interact with acquaintances, which reveals the “cliquey” social scene that was identified by the participants.
Key Words: Social Exchange Theory, college campus, Seattle Freeze
Introduction
Seattle is known for a lot of things, whether it is the coffee, the alternative rock music scene or its successful companies like Amazon or Microsoft. However, it’s also known for its distant and antisocial culture, best known as the “Seattle Freeze.” “The Seattle Freeze” is often characterized by the obstacle to turn relationships with acquaintances into genuine friendships outside of work and school. It’s difficult to determine where the Seattle Freeze originated from. The term was first coined by a Seattle Times journalist in 2005 (Sommerfeld 2005) but the phenomenon has actually been around for a while. In fact, it might have dated back to the mid 1940s. An excerpt from The Seattle Daily Times on February 1, 1946 said that “It was revealed what we had indeed suspected – that newcomers do not always find us altogether perfect; that we sometimes are neglectful of the