Blog 1

         As a society, we are forced to act a certain way when in public, compared to our usually selves in private.  Take New York for example, our lives are constantly under pressure to act a certain way everyday.  This pressure can be problematic as it can affect our individuality, sometimes at a slow pace, or rapidly.  There is a New York standard that we live up to and an attitude we thrive for.  Our behavior in public is very different than at home.  This change of attitude can even be subconscious from repetition, but we want our behavior to give a good impression when in public.

         Public transportation is a way New Yorkers get from here to there on a daily basis.  How you look or act on the train can affect they way you are portrayed in public.  These strangers make a snap judgment on your appearance or behavior no matter what.  There is a constant need to look good in New York.  Some people won’t even leave the house without make up and their new suit or outfit on.  When you see a person on train with last season’s shoes or a mismatched outfit you immediately judge.  When I am home I will wear different color socks and my pajamas or something comfortable, but I would not be caught dead in public with that outfit.  We like to look “put together” and successful as if we have something to prove to these other people.  Even a total stranger’s opinion matters to me and to most New Yorkers.  Which is why we choose to dress or look the way we do.  This pressure can be very problematic, but will remain unchanged.  No matter what we do people will always judge and we will always care.

         New Yorkers also tend to forget their manners in public.  Everyone is always in a rush to get somewhere and our behavior changes.  Instead of saying “thank you” and using the magic word “please,” we push past people and curse at each other if someone walks to slow.  The New York lifestyle is very fast paced and chaotic and after you live here for a while you get used to it.  But when we see tourists we roll our eyes, we scream “SHIT” when we miss a train even if there are children around.  We forget that we aren’t the only people in the city and our behavior can seriously offend others.  Being impolite and selfish is seriously problematic because all of our actions can affect the people around us.  We laugh at homeless people instead of thinking about what they have been through.  We forget that everyone struggles with things that you couldn’t even imagine.  We take that out on people around us instead of working on it at home.  But when we get home we like to be relaxed and with our family.  The at home attitude is what we should also be feeling in public, but for some reason we don’t and most of us never will.

         In conclusion, our private and public lives will continue to remain separate lives because of the pressure on us by society and our lifestyle.  Perhaps we can learn to just be ourselves everywhere we go but we feel as if we are constantly under a microscope.  I feel that if we learn to stop judging each other, we can learn to treat each other with respect and understand them more from just one look.