The further I read in my sociology textbook, the more I realize that what sociologists do as work, I do for fun. Like finding the unwritten rules that people have and fucking with them. A fun experiment, if you're attending a class: seat rearranging! People tend to sit in the same places every time they're in the same room at the same time. Watch where a group of people sit who are friends, and arrive early enough to sit in the middle of the seats they usually occupy. They will sit somewhere else, which will displace another person or group, which will displace another, and so on, like dominoes. It makes people uneasy, and it's oodles of fun.
The bus is an excellent place for this sort of experiment. People will take any open seat, even all the way at the back of the bus, before they will sit next to a stranger. Find a bus that's only partially full, and sit next to someone. If you're lucky, you may even get odd sideways glances from your chosen seat partner, who probably won't *say* anything (another unwritten rule, haha!) but will most likely be quite uncomfortable.
Now I'm going to have to try this more often. Curse you, sociology textbook!
