Week 7-Free Money
1) I
happened to be at Lake Wauberg with my roommate so I chose to approach people
who happened to be at the lake at the same time. It was a busy day so it was
not hard to find people.
2) I
approached mostly students who were on their phones or computers so they were
distracted. You will not see much in the videos because I spoke to people who
were mostly sunbathing so I figured they would not appreciate being recorded with
so few clothes on. The two recordings I put up were the two that were most
clear.
3) I
was horrible at getting conversation started. I took the more “Here’s a dollar
to improve your day” approach and would walk away immediately. I did this because I was nervous and very
awkward. I have a tendency to laugh when I’m nervous, so these people probably
think I am clinically insane instead of nice.
4) I
had no plan for the conversation, my nervousness just took over. I was really
not relaxed at all. The interviews were easier to me because I could ask the
people before if they wanted to be recorded and if they would participate in
the interview. I didn’t like this assignment because I felt like I had to
essentially hide my phone and there was no good explanation as to why I was
giving them this dollar.
5) I
was actually able to give away 3 dollar bills. These were the people I walked away
from very quickly so they didn’t get a chance to give me the dollar back. The
other two looked at me very weirdly and said something along the lines of “no
thank you”.
Overall Reflection:
This assignment was incredibly weird for me. I was very
uncomfortable giving people money and secretly recording them. They also really did not like being disturbed. I
did the recordings secretly because I figured that was the only way I would be
able to get a natural reaction. I did not like the experience at all. My plan
did not deviate because I did not have one going into this assignment. My roommate
and I just happened to be at Lake Wauberg and I figured it was as good of a
place as any. I could not think of any real reason to give people the money,
and when I did (“in case you need money to buy sunscreen”) it sounded very rude
to me when I heard it back. The girl was also not very happy with me; she gave
me a very weird look. I completely underestimated this assignment; it was hard,
uncomfortable, and I don’t think I gained anything from it except some embarrassment.
Here you go.
I can totally understand how hard this assignment was for you. I feel there is a difference between giving money to someone for practical/charitable purposes and then giving money away for a school assignment. There is also the fact that people are trained to avoid strangers and what may be considered strange behavior, so their reactions towards you offering probably made it an even more challenging experience for you. Still, I think you are very brave for doing this assignment in the first place. It takes guts to do this sort of thing, so good job on this!
ReplyDeleteLOL. A) Your blog is appropriately and hilariously titled. B) Your #3 sets the scene perfectly for the recordings and accurately portrays what many of us feel during the majority of these ENT3003 assignments (out of our comfort zones and forced to expand them).
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised people gave you the $1 back, and I'm guessing it was because of how nervous/awkward you were. I love imagining you throwing a dollar at someone and yelling "happy day!" to them as you book it. Your market may have been part of the problem, too. If you were hitting people who were out shopping, you may have had more success. I don't want paper money when I'm wet/in a bathing suit.
Check out my blog: http://adventuresinent.blogspot.com/. There are some laughs to be had.