Thursday’s call and response flash mob was more of a public disturbance. It lacked the one thing that makes flash mobs identifiable, which was the coming together as a group in the process of the cawing. With that being said, the call and response did get the same kind of attention and reaction that a typical flash mob would receive. At the beginning, the cawing was not as obvious but people kept looking around to find out what the noise was about. As the sound got more frequent, people were laughing and get slightly annoyed. People were trying to play off the noise by ignoring it or by walking way from the inner circle. People would turn their hands as to where the sound was more prominent. So to some extent the flash mob was successful in getting a reaction from others. Unfortunately, I did not have enough courage to participate in the flash mob. Since the flash mob took place in school, a very familiar environment, my performance was to maintain my front stage as a respectful student so I couldn’t find it within myself to cawing loudly and disrupt others.
I decided to do a small breeching experiment of my own which involved going to Dunkin Donuts in the morning and paying with coins. Mornings at Dunkin Donuts are like clockwork, people order their food and the cashier swipes their card and they’re good to go. Since it was a weekday morning, people come into Dunkin Donut expecting a quick service. When I entered Dunkin Donuts, there was a pretty long line of people wanting their coffee before going to do whatever it is they had to do that day. In normal experiences, cashiers are quite friendly and patient with customers. But since I was paying for four dollars worth of food in dimes and nickels, the cashier and people behind me became impatient. I guess it was taking me too long to count four dollars worth of coins, that the cashier took it upon herself to help me count them in order to make the process quicker. I did not have to look behind me to sense that the customers in line were not too please about my method of payment and the cashier didn't seem to happy to have to scoop up coins and putting them into the cash register. Needless to say, I left the place with my food and large amount of embarrassment. Something that I notice about myself was that since I don't have any personal connection to Dunkin Donuts, it was easier for me to be disruptive because I knew I would probably never see those people again. What I did learn from the experiment is that individuals can be quick in changing from their front stage to their back stage. Like in the case of the cashier, she was polite to me when I was ordering my hot chocolate and bagel but when it came to me paying in coins, she became impatient and rushed me to get to her next customer. Although I didn't look behind me to see other customer’s reactions, I could still tell that they did not appreciate the extra time they had to wait for their turn to order.