It is a few days after my last Let's Chat; day 3 in Kuala Lumpur (held on 4 June), Sarah's on school vacation and I find some moments to write about some of my reflections.
With 49 days (about 100 hours, about 250 chats, with about 250 individuals) in Calgary and 3 days (7 hours, about 44 individuals, 27 chats) in Kuala Lumpur, there are some patterns I perceive; worth a mention:
The most contentious one, I expect, is this one: How come, in Canada, on the three occasions when the public park-space was "invaded" by commercial or solicitous messaging, the number of people passing by, meeting me with eye contact, saying a quick "hello" or "how's it going?", dropped to zero, while the number sitting down to chat was unaffected? (1 set of marketing canvassers, 1 set of charity event signer-uppers, 1 big plumbers billboard). I make up the story that there is a section of the population who are "borderline connectors", who would stop and connect if circumstances were better (i.e. they will not make the time, but will do so if the time and place are right). However, demands for attention, especially demands which feel like they take more than they offer, send these people into a defensiveness, which could be likened to a form of tunnel vision; they become tightly-focused on their immediate objective and lose all peripheral awareness.
I read an article in Adbusters a year or two ago that cited data, showing that the average urban dweller is exposed to 5000(?) commercial messages per day. What is the impact of 5000 demands for my attention on my social awareness, even on my social intelligence? Stupification? What then satisfies my deep human need to feel connected or a sense of belonging? I make up that we have allowed ourselves to become subverted into a proxy experience of community, through the manipulated channel of advertising, rather than through our direct experience of the community that surrounds us. So, what should our responsibility be?
Back to the research: The big difference between the two cities is in the demographic I'm meeting, and only in terms of gender. In Calgary the "audience" was split 50/50 men and women, of all ages between 20-90, from day 1. So far. in Kuala Lumpur, all but three approaches have been by men. I can understand this because women do not approach strange men here and need a formal introduction. When women did approach me I was in the shade of a big Mall; maybe that was more familiar, safer territory than a street corner?
The second difference has been in the duration of chats. In Canada the average chat was about 10-15 minutes, whereas here it has been 5-10 minutes. I will need to gather more experience before I can say for certain, however I am making up a story that this is to do with the level of comfort of the "invitee". The temperature and sun exposure might be a factor, being far warmer and sunnier here than at the park in Calgary. Also, it might have something to do with the fact that in, in Calgary, when seated, my 6'3"" height was not apparent. Here I haven't found a good sitting location, am forced to stand and the height difference between me and the average Malaysian is a lot greater. I imagine that a big chap like me could appear threatening. On the other hand a friend said, "I don't know, a big, Caucasian male like you will get a lot of attention here". Time will tell.
I suspect that (and I make this up; this will be hard to verify, doing this by myself), the number of potential chatters, or the "potential chatter density" is the same in both regions. I have had a higher chat frequency, with a shorter duration, in Malaysia than in Canada, but potential chatters will tend to shy away from interrupting an existing chat (again I make that up). This will be interseting to verify, factoring in the environment (such as heat and sun, as said before) .
Sorry; right now I have to play with Sarah in the pool. I will build on this article later. Good bye for now - Phil
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