This week the time I spent in the field was more productive because there were more people at the site I chose. I tried a different location this week thinking it would be more busy and showed up at roughly the same time on the same day as last week (12:30pm Friday). There were far more individuals moving through the area but not many who stayed for any length of time and it was difficult to get accurate information on them but there were some larger groups of people in the area in contrast to the last observations. This time there were two groups of five, one group of four, two groups of three, and approximately 15 people passing through as individuals or couples.
The first group of five had four males and one female. There were also a couple of individuals that stopped in with the group and chatted for a few minutes before continuing on their way. All of the people in the group checked their phone at least once and two males were on their phones for several minutes at a time. The female was on her phone for most of their time there although she was contributing to the conversation the others were engaged in. The group seemed to be engaged in some kind of specific conversation revolving around a project they were doing together or possibly a study group. This group was there the entire time I was there.
The second goup of five also had the look of a project or study group. There were three females and two males in this group. There were two people in this group that had their laptops out and the table they were around was crowded with paperwork, notebooks, and books as well as their computers and food and drinks. All the people in this groups also checked their phones periodically or would be on for several minutes at a time. The conversation they had involved the computers and several of the notebooks that were on the table and became very animated at times when they would group around one of the computers. This group showed up at different times about 20 minutes after I got there with one male and one female showing up first and approximately five minutes later the rest showed up.
The group of four were all female and they were dressed in similar clothes suggesting they were part of an athletic organization or sorority (or possibly both). They were all on their phones for the majority of the time they were there and did not talk to each other much during their time at the table. They did have two people stop by and talk to them for a few minutes while they were there and these people were not dressed in similar clothes so I am assuming they were friends or acquaintances of one or more of the people in the group.
The first group of three consisted of three males and they had the look of students coming in from class and eating together before splitting up to go to the next class. They all had book bags with them but did not get into them and only checked their phones a couple of times they were there presumably to check the time. They had a quiet conversation but mainly concerned themselves with eating. They left individually and the last person left at about the same time I left.
The second group of three was another group of males. I think this group might have come from the same class as the other group of three because they were involved in an animated conversation going over the class. These guys also only checked their phones occasionally except on one occasion one of them got a phone call and separated himself from the group to take the call for about 10 minutes. After he got back from the call they left as a group a few minutes later.
The rest of the people that came through were either by themselves or with what looked like a boyfriend/girlfriend. From what I was able to observe, many of them (approximately 10) had their phones out or had headphones in and just grabbed their food and left without interacting with anyone but the server of the restaurant. Some were dressed in athletic clothes, others in business clothes but most people had on t-shirts and shorts or jeans.
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