locust-style social effect

I’m on a train. It’s 218pm, I’m on the east-west line on the way to Buona Vista. There’s a group of people – I think they’re students, I can’t tell where they’re from. Maybe ITE students. I’m writing this because it’s interesting to me how a small group of people are much noisier than the rest of the train. There is a locust aspect to a group of friends. Social dynamics changes as you increase the number of people in a public place.

A while ago I was having dinner with a friend and our spouses and there was a large group of young people having dinner. From what I could gather, they were students – wasn’t sure if they were from JC or Poly.

Other things I’ve noticed –

Girls having a face to face conversation, where they were very obviously paying attention to each other’s facial expressions. I’m not sure what they were talking about specifically, but they were really looking at each other. I don’t think boys make nearly as much eye contact with one another.

Difference between boys and girls:

• Girls in girls schools actually care about Valentine’s day, boys don’t
  • friendship letters, notes to one another
• Gifting, taking photos together
• Making straw hearts
• Boys play more video games, competitively, do sports more spontaneously (you don’t see girls coming to class sweaty after recess?)