An environment I have been in long enough to expect & understand the behaviors that are a part of it are the MTA trains. Typically I, along with many other commuters, will be on our phones listening to music, texting, on social media if we have data or a combination of those actions; Some are watching a show they downloaded off a streaming device, playing on gaming apps, or even talking on the phone with someone-not caring how much of their conversation is overshared. This type of behavior can cause those nearby to be annoyed, including me. It’s subtle, but when you see this repeated behavior enough you notice who the real New Yorkers are as you can often see the annoyance in their face. Same rules apply to when theres “showtime” in your train cart-a performance that either involves dancing or singing & when the performance is done, they ask for change. It’s usually tourists that give the performers money, but very rarely is a performance so unique that it grabs the attention of native New Yorkers. To grab our attention means the person or group was astounding, as New Yorkers show to have mastered the art of ignoring others. We tend to ignore people on the train when they’re performers, poor people asking for money, people acting out of social order & when a physical &/or verbal altercation is occurring. In regards to the poor & those not obeying society’s conduct, we acknowledge them but we also don’t. We may glance when they enter the cart or start speaking, but immediately we’ll turn our attention back to what we were doing before to avoid guilt or a possible threat. When it comes to altercations, some, like myself, will not look in the direction of where the voices are coming from to avoid attention being drawn to them. Others may start recording the altercation in secret or with no shame. New York City is just filled with so much culture and how we as a society process & respond to certain situations is one of them.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.