The population within Williamsburg can be divided into three groups: the college students, the service workers, and the elderly folk. Usually these three groups roam in isolated circles from each other, they never really interact. My initial thoughts going into the project were that I wanted to zone in on the specific actions of service workers and a William and Mary student towards each other on the bus. What was of interest to me, was the unique society that is derived from riding a bus; the public bus even though it is a public space, creates its own society and social behaviors. When a patron gets on the bus, they prescribe to the unique societal structure that is being created by the atmosphere of the bus; it is to, a person may behave
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To try to keep my observations at a very discrete level, I wrote all of my notes using Google Docs on my phone. I tried handwriting notes when I first visited my research site but it produced suspicious looks from people at the bus stop. No one disturbed me or gave me suspicious looks when I typed on my phone; no one thought I had an ulterior motive for riding the bus. Choosing the Red Line for my first hour of observations was intentional; I wanted to get the mixture of service workers and students on my first ride. I noticed interactions, such as, people on the bus would find any means possible to be able to go around having to interact with people from outside of their circle, which I expected to happen. However, what I did not expect were the actions of each group member. I witnessed group members establish a sort of power dynamic on the bus. There was a moment when an African American male came on the bus, sat in the back and turned his music on loudly for everyone to hear; whereas, there was another moment when a group of William and Mary students boarded the bus, sat in the back and had a boisterous conversation the entire bus ride back to campus. Both of these interactions transpired when one group or the other, in a way, tried to establish a form of power control within the bus society. This was the most surprising outcome that came from the first hour of
To try to keep my observations at a very discrete level, I wrote all of my notes using Google Docs on my phone. I tried handwriting notes when I first visited my research site but it produced suspicious looks from people at the bus stop. No one disturbed me or gave me suspicious looks when I typed on my phone; no one thought I had an ulterior motive for riding the bus. Choosing the Red Line for my first hour of observations was intentional; I wanted to get the mixture of service workers and students on my first ride. I noticed interactions, such as, people on the bus would find any means possible to be able to go around having to interact with people from outside of their circle, which I expected to happen. However, what I did not expect were the actions of each group member. I witnessed group members establish a sort of power dynamic on the bus. There was a moment when an African American male came on the bus, sat in the back and turned his music on loudly for everyone to hear; whereas, there was another moment when a group of William and Mary students boarded the bus, sat in the back and had a boisterous conversation the entire bus ride back to campus. Both of these interactions transpired when one group or the other, in a way, tried to establish a form of power control within the bus society. This was the most surprising outcome that came from the first hour of