On Sunday, February 8, 2010, I, Kaitlyn Gilham, shared smiles with 26 strangers in various public areas in Buffalo, New York. Sharing smiles with strangers is harder than you'd think it would be. Just smiling at people doesn't insure that they will smile back, especially in public areas. To get people to share a smile with me I mostly found myself trying to have conversations with them, or display some act of kindness towards them.
Just smiling at people made them actually lose eye contact with me more rapidly, and seemed to make people more uncomfortable. When allowing myself to be comfortable around others it became much easer for them to be comfortable around me, which made smile sharing happen more often.
Special thanks to Alyssa Serba for helping document my day.
For this endurance performance piece, Katie attempted to share a smile with any stranger she tried to. This is very interesting and involves interacting with strangers that now a days seems to be very tough. Although a smile is welcoming and known as an act of kindness, she said it was tough to get a stranger comfortable enough to exchange a smile with her. A smile may not seem like that big of an act of kindness or interaction however many people are not always comfortable to let a stranger into feelings or comfort zone. I personally do not think flashing someone an unexpected or talking to someone i do not know is weird or a big deal but many people would not hesitate to disagree with me. I know that katie is a tad bit shy and quiet so this must have been a challenge for six hours and an experience to remember. Interaction between strangers is very intriguing to study and I think it was a great endurance idea.
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