Mapping Space p.233-241

For this exercise I chose to observe one of my friends with one of her classmates during one of their regular study sessions.

I was invited to a study session that my friend Nora has with one of her classmates a couple of times a week. I expected it to be a very serious situation in which they focused on specific topics integral to the course. I thought that there would be very little talk of anything outside of class, and that there would be some sort of study plan laid out for them to follow. I had these assumptions because my friend is 4.0 student who regularly talks about how much studying she has to do and how hard and stressful her classes are.

When I got there I saw that they were sitting at the kitchen table with their books piled around them, and their computers in front of them. Neither of them were speaking, although when I got there they both looked up to say hello.

They remained like that for about 20 minutes before I realized that neither of them was actually doing any studying. Nora was on Facebook and her friend was checking her email, although I suspect that that was not the only thing she had been doing for the past 20 minutes. They remained like that for about another 10 minutes then Nora mentioned something funny about what one of her friends had posted. After that they stopped messing around on the internet and began talking. They talked about boys, the weekend, the professors they didn't like, and a number of other things, none of which had anything to do with their poli. sci. class.

They discussed those things for about half an hour then Nora's friend got up to get some food. She went to the fridge but it was empty so she went to the store. After she left Nora picked up a notebook but quickly put it back down and began talking to me. We talked about pretty much the same things that she talked about with her friend. Then we went outside for a smoke break and her friend returned.

Once her friend returned they both decided that it was time to get to work. They went back inside and picked up their books. Once this happened there was alot of looking between their notes and their books, and sighs of frustration. Occasionally one of them would ask a question about what they were studying and the other would give an answer or a shrug then it would become silent again. There would also be an occasional remark about something that they were studying, and we would all laugh for a bit. It remained like this for a long time, I would say about an hour and a half. By that time it was around 11:30 and Nora's friend decided it was time to go home, so she left after saying goodbye. After she left Nora and I went outside for another smoke break then she went back inside and sat back down at the table. When she sat back down she immediately got back to work.

It appeared to me like Nora's friend, while sweet and obviously intelligent, was a distraction to her, and Nora was a distraction to her friend. The entire time that I had been there, which had been over two hours very little studying had gotten done.