Observation is a very essential tool in research. For this task, I decided to do the observation at a local coffee shop inside of campus. This place was appropriate for observation since many campus students came there to have coffee and thus it was easy to observe all of the interactions taking place. I developed a sketch of the general layout of the café to help me in my final analysis of how the interactions took place in the shop.
Students were the most common customers in the shop carrying bags or just school cards to assist in buying meals. There were also faculty members coming in for a break. I took some few minutes to familiarize myself with the things happening around the coffee shop. I noticed that different customers had different patterns. Some would come in just for a rest or break, others would come in for a small meeting, others would come in to finish some homework while others would just come to hang out with friends and catch up. Others did not even eat at the shop. They simply bought what they needed and went on their way.
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I did my observation in a way that allowed me to follow up on those coming in and going and those who remained to eat at the shop. Most of the customers coming in would go to directly to the queue to place order, others would take food from the shelves and go to the queue to pay while others came in, looked around for a spot, placed their things so that no one else would sit there then go into the queue. Most of the people in the queue did not interact with each other. Some of them were too occupied on something that they were doing on their phones while others were wearing headphones listening to music. Others who had come with friends along would stand alongside the queue and chat with them. Most people had their cards or cash in their hands, others had them in their bags and had to take time looking for them after ordering. Most people rarely looked at the menu to know what they wanted to order.
After picking up whatever they needed, people behaved differently when it came to finding where to sit. Most people never hung around during morning hours around 11. Some of them were obviously running to a class they were late for. Most people tended to stay during the evening hours around 4:00pm-5:00pm. People would visit more in groups around the evening hours (OpenStax, 2013) . Sociological Inquiry tends to explain people’s social networks and every day choices. Age defines social interactions. Most people who were found to be in a conversation in the shop were with their peers, people whom were close in age. They seemed to share issues that are more common and understand each other. Students came in with other students.
Most people also tended not to interact with each other due to familiarity issues. Most people had been brought to the shop by the primary purpose of buying a drink or a snack; they therefore did not have that much necessity to interact with strangers. Human beings tend not to solitary hence they can do without interactions with other people. Time also determines the interaction (OpenStax, 2013) . More people tended to come in with friends in the evening since they were done with their daily activities. The issue on the card and cash also indicated how different people are in their preparedness to do something. Some are fully prepared to do something while others are not. Social interaction patterns are dependent on many factors since people are selective on who they interact with.
References
OpenStax. (2013). Introduction to Sociology 2e. Texas: OpenStax.
Piliavin, J. A. (2014). Sociology 357: Methods of Sociological Inquiry. Sociology at UW Madison .
Wood, P. (2013). Sociological Inquiry. Michigan: Wiley-Blackwell Sociology Spotlight.
