The Familiar Stranger

“Smile at strangers and you just might change a life.” 
― Steve Maraboli

I stumbled across one of the most fascinating articles titled "The Familiar Stranger: comfort, anxiety and play in public places" when trying to find inspiration for my blog post. This was a concept that I always thought about so i was greatly excited to see it as published research. The familiar stranger is defined by psychologist Stanley Milgram as individuals we often observe but don't interact with. Urban living and public spaces are filled with familiar strangers! Think of all the faces we see day to day, it is almost impossible to remember them all, but yet there are those that stand out, due to a particular quirk or the simple fact of repetitive meetings with no direct interaction. 
There are countless familiar strangers that pop into my mind and they are mostly colorful characters, road side vendors, or even common passerbys. According to Paulos and Goodman (authors of the article) the fixed place strangers are the ones who's absence we note along our urban day to day living.
Another interesting feature of the research was the idea that the further away from our routine we encounter our familiar stranger, the more likely we are to acknowledge them and treat them as a close friend. For example if we were to have an encounter with the lady we see selling pies on the street corner in a place far removed from our routine, such as a vacation abroad, it would be typical to break the no interaction barrier and treat her as a friend by engaging in conversation.

Places we meet Familiar Strangers

This picture to me represents the essence of familiar strangers. Travelling day to day is extremely routine and mindless to many. High traffic urban streets, crosswalks, intersections are all places that we utilize and sometimes see that familiar face of a person we do not know. Public spaces and urban life go hand in hand with familiar strangers.


The article also offers insight to the anxiety that urban public places breed as well as how city planning and public spaces can foster unity among familiar strangers, making them less strange. I would give it a read. 
http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1213&context=hcii

All throughout this post I couldn't get two songs out of my mind so here they are, aptly titled and all. Both teaching lessons of strangers becoming friends.

Trying to keep my post short and sweet
Sharifa













“There's an opposite to déjà vu. They call it jamais vu. It's when you meet the same people or visit places, again and again, but each time is the first. Everybody is always a stranger. Nothing is ever familiar.” 
― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke