Knox+-+Clue+Draft

Clue Draft Erin Knox 2-12-11 Are We Really That Different From Each Other? **Problem: ** At one point or another, you have probably heard the saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. In this paper, I tried to explore college life and see if people are really that different as we appear to be on the outside from one another. I will address this concept by using ethnographic data in the form of interviews and public observations. Also, I used background from Rebekah Nathan’s book, //My Freshmen Year//. Throughout all my research, I hope to capture Bloomsburg University’s culture and get a better understanding of the students who attend it.

**Background: ** Rebekah Nathan is an anthropology professor at a university. She wanted to get a better understanding of her students, so she enrolled as a freshman at her school. There she observed college culture. She documented her findings into a book she wrote called //My Freshmen Year.// Nathan’s shares her perspective. “As a partial outsider in college owing to my age, I found myself drawn to other partial outsiders, and vice versa. Those of us who in some way deviated from the norm perceived something in common and ended up, I noted, seeking one another out”. Instantly, when you are thrown into a new environment with new people, you gravitate towards others that are like-you. We tend to stay in our comfort zones and don’t expand our social circle too far, from what I have observed. Why is it that individuals become close to others that appear to be like themselves? Are we afraid of rejection?

**Method: ** To help answer my question – are we that different from each other – I went out on campus and tried to interview some of the 11,000 or so students who attend Bloomsburg. I was not targeting any certain type of person, but rather a random selection of different students. I asked basic questions such as: Do you like going to Bloomsburg University? What are you interests? Are you involved in any clubs, activities, or greek life organizations? What do weekdays consist of? What do you do on weekends? Although I got a wide variety of answers, I was still able to see some pattern in my data I collected.

**Findings: ** I figured out that although everyone looks different and follows different style trend, most people have similar interests and do basic routines the same. For example: I asked a blonde hair, blue eyed, sorority girl along with an edgy, punk-like boy my questions. The sorority girl said: “I love going to Bloomsburg. During the week, I am normally in the library because I am a nursing major or at the hospital. On weekends, I like hanging out with friends, cutting lose, and going to concerts. I love music.” The boy responded: “I am a commuter student and I am only on campus for a short amount of time. I am in a band, and love to perform. Music is my life and I love going to music festivals.” Two individuals that appear to be complete opposites ended up having a lot in common. “Never judge a book by its cover”.

As for public observations, I did not pick any particular location, but outside in general. One thing really stood out to me. If you were not walking in a group, individual people were majority of the time pre-occupied: either talking on the phone, texting, or messing around with their i-pod. Also, many lone walkers never made eye contact. People normally looked down at the ground, or around at the scenery. Why is it that students normally act busy? Are they embarrassed to be caught being alone?

**Conclusion: ** Overall, my ethnographic data shows that Bloomsburg University students prefer to surround themselves with people like them. I am not sure if it is because most people are away from home for the first time and need to have that comfort level. Or perhaps people are just simply happy with staying in a bubble of the same thing. Whatever the reasoning is behind this occurrence, I think if people opened themselves up to individuals that might not look like them on the outside, they would find that they are more compatible then one would assume.