Away We Go~ (but where to?)

Hi Everyone!

So far, I've been researching different settings for my experiment to take place and have officially decided on three settings to try out:

- Santa Clara County Library: Libraries have been rated as one of the best places to study and with the cafe at the side, may be it can be a great hangout spot as well.

- Starbucks: It's the most mainstream franchise around and is always filled with a variety of people, including students. It wouldn't surprise me if the combination of appreciated company and the alluring scent of coffee made studying a little more... bearable.

-Tea Era: With all this hype about PMT, I'm not entirely shocked that this came up right next to coffee shops. Who's to say that you can't read your AP Lang text while feeding your companion a sausage bento along the way?

I've already asked the librarian/shop owners for permission to take pictures and videos, of which they said "okay" as long as I don't disturb others (ha ha, no promises...) and STOP being sick (something about me being a health code violation). If all goes well, I'll be able to start this weekend ^^~~

Now, in terms of who will be participating in my test to spread my happy virus, I needed a healthy amount of people of all sorts of variety (friends, acquaintances, strangers, enemies).  I decided to gather three friends and three acquaintances to aid me, and randomly select a six classmates I don't know too well to play the role of "strangers". If time permits, I would like to test a scenario where I'm with an "enemy" and see if the happy virus will still spread or if the opposite effect will occur (heaven forbid that...).

BTW- There were some people who were uncomfortable when I told them about me filming and taking pictures of our interactions, so I went on a little shopping trip :D ( I might have gotten a little carried away).

Granted, these kind of look creepy and you know that these are all pictures of me, but that's because these were taken at selfie proximity.

That's all the progress I have to report to you all! If you have any questions, please, don't be afraid to ask!!

The Game Plan

Hey all~~

I don't know about you, but I hate the thought of wasting time and think that school is boring. On the other hand, I love being with friends, going to "hot spots", and  fun class activities. A few, if not many, of you guys would agree, am I right? But why?  What is it about working with others that makes things more exciting?

Hypothesis- If you are working together with friends, then like a virus, your joy of working together will transfer into your project.

But there are still so many unanswered questions. What makes the "perfect partner"? Can a "perfect partner" still be considered as so in different environments? How many partners can you have before it is considered too much? These are all good questions, and I am determined to find the answer

My mission for the rest of the semester is to figure out why certain activities make people more interested and to see if this atmosphere can be duplicated successfully in multiple situations such as: studying in the library, working on a project, and hanging out at Starbucks. I will be acting in each setting three times (with a different personality each time) with an unsuspecting test subject friend, and then I will interview them about the experience. Hopefully, I will be able to record and post every interaction on time. Of course, I will be posting about my findings as well as I observe their behavior and try to find any patterns.

As an introvert, I hope to build a stronger understanding of the extroverted world and maybe develop more questions along the way. I understand that this is is a difficult and confusing topic to gauge, but as long as I learn something new each day, I'm sure I'll  be fine. I also feel that this may benefit many, including myself, so all I can say is "good luck" to myself.

Let's see if I can build and spread a happy virus-

Challenge Accepted!