Week 9 - Facebook?

I handed out my nineteenth and twentieth notecards this week to a female and a male. I observed some neat things this week, not only in the experiment itself, but in myself as well. So without further ado, here’s how it happened:

For a while, there have been two people I’ve been considering for notecards, and I managed to get them both in one week. One is a male that I ALWAYS see wearing earbuds, yet I have never once seen him with another human being. On this particular night, however, I saw him without earbuds as he entered the residence hall. I almost didn’t catch it or even think of it, as I was on my way out as he was entering.  By the time I had made the executive decision in my mind to give this guy a notecard, the door had already closed. Damn. Now I’m that guy that takes two steps out of a building, realizes he forgot something, and then has to try his best to not look like a mook when he does a 180 and goes right back inside the structure he had just left. I go in and give the guy a notecard, but he was having none of it; he did, however, have plenty of that “you’re fucking crazy” look on his face the whole time I was explaining. He left, probably never to make eye contact with me again. Pity.

Anyway, as you can imagine, he didn’t call back, though I did an observation about myself—When someone’s body language is implying that they’re uncomfortable (which happens a lot, as I’m sure you can imagine), I tend to reinforce the fact that this is a school project. Maybe it’s because I subconsciously don’t want to seem too strange or to seem like I’m selling something, but I really can’t help mentioning a few times that this is a project for school when someone seems uncomfortable.

The other person, the female, gave a more positive response. Females tend to be the fairer sex as far as positive responses (smiling, nodding, eye contact, superfluous thank you’s) over males, even when they don’t call back. Anyway, it was Friday when I ran into her, handing her a card. Immediately, she said “Ok, well I’m not going to be here over the weekend, and I have a group project on Monday, but I can call you after that!” Huh, pretty cool, I thought; that’s the first time someone in this experiment actually told me they would call me. What’s more, the girl sent me a friend request over Facebook that very evening. That’s the first time someone in this experiment has sent me a friend request before getting to know me first. Facebook aside, however, I was just glad to have someone else calling me back so I would have something to write about. Right?

Dead wrong! Tuesday rolled around, and I got TOTALLY whiffed by this girl! Weaksauce. The only time someone actually SAID they would call back, and they didn’t. But the strangest part? When we pass each other going somewhere, she not only says hello, but she stops to talk. Jesus, my actual friends hardly afford me that luxury when I pass them, let alone some rando that didn’t even call me in the first place but nonetheless friend requested me. Am I the only one that finds this odd?

So that was my week. It was interesting enough on my end, I think—but please, feel free to ask questions or give comments. And please be honest; I’m tougher than I look, I don’t mind criticism.