The Antisocial Social Club

Antisocial, what is even the meaning of antisocial, anyways?

I don’t smoke and neither do my friends, however, on a night out, I see people sneak away to the smoking area and I always think, that is so antisocial. What makes something antisocial though? These groups of smokers all interact with each other in this shared space, whether they are asking for a light or if they have a spare ‘ciggie’. I recently found myself in a smoking area at a pub, every table was full inside and I was there to watch the UFC main event. The smoking area had plenty of space and believe it or not several screens airing the main event and other sporting events to cater for everyone.

I became apart of a spontaneous public, where I had to follow the rules of ambient television unknowingly. Dafna Lemish, “The rules of viewing television in public places”, Journal of Broadcasting,1982

• Adjust to the social rules of my setting (in this instance a pub)
• Adjust implicitly to other viewers (not blocking the view for others around me)
• Openly talking about what’s on the screen (when the fight had ended, I found myself watching the darts final which I had no intention on viewing)
• Unintentionally avoiding strangers

This concept of using a public screen to avoid people can be so unknowingly accurate. We as people feel safe when we are lost in a screen, the outer world and our surroundings become clouded. When I am avoiding people I don’t want to converse with I use a public or a private screen to appear pre-occupied or caught up in something that makes me look too busy to talk. It is not because I am antisocial, it is just because I don’t always want to partake in small talk.

My experience at the pub left me victim to this ‘antisocial’ behaviour. A guy I use to ‘talk’ to was watching the same main event at the same pub inside. To avoid running into him and to avoid the awkward conversation that would have lead, I ran away into the smoking area where it was safe and well, free of awkwardness. However, this experience has made me think about how a public screen brings people together or apart.

Anna McCarthy’s 2001 study of television in public spaces described television as having become a ‘slippery’ term pointing to a wide range of technologies, motivations and practices. Her study makes you think, what do we use public screens to do?

For me, a public screen has always been about gathering in a large group and bonding with likeminded people with the same passion as you. So, when did I become so antisocial?