Bear with the longish ramblings. See if you can make some sense of it because I really want to hear some other peoples thoughts!
I am taking a couple of really awesome classes this semester! The two I am specifically referring to in this post are my Family Recreation and Social Recreation classes.
In Social Recreation we get together and play for every class period (you can be jealous now). The purpose of the class is to learn how to manage groups and plan events and activities. Honestly, I can see the usefulness of everything we learn in all aspects of my life. The class has about 40 people and the teacher is a crazy man, kind of in a way that reminds me of my Grandpa Wills (which is a good thing).
The second is my Family Recreation class. The purpose of this class is to learn the theories and models that have been developed in regards to family cohesiveness and recreation. AWESOME CLASS!! I highly recommend it so far. In this class we also learn games and activities and will eventually need to develop a program based on an accepted theory.
An interesting dynamic I have seen and been discussed in class is what I am calling the "Lonely Crowd" syndrome. This kind of goes along with the idea of being stranded in the ocean and dying of dehydration. Not a perfect comparison but it kind of works. In the Lonely Crowd phenomenon it seems the more access to people you have the less relationships you create. In college my classes that have hundreds of students I maybe got to know two of them . A class that only has 20 people meant I would probably end up being facebook friends with every single one of them.
The same thing is seen in town vs. cities, corporations vs. mom and pop businesses, and small game nights vs. a large party. A small group tends to create unity and cohesiveness much more than large ones. This is a little bit strange to me. Many people say they would prefer to be in a city, party, or some other large group setting. Why? If they want to create meaningful relationships I have observed it is better to have a limited number of people available to develop that relationship. Maybe they want to get lost.
The term safety in numbers takes on a little different meaning to me in this context. Maybe people are so afraid of creating relationships and opening up to others that they want the safety of being able to get lost and hide in the crowd. Personally I have liked being able to fade away once in a while but I have always preferred the small groups and one on one interactions. These are scary but so worth it!
There is so much more I want to say! Just the act of writing this out I have come up with other thoughts and ideas. However, this is much longer than I first intended. One things I would like to specifically address at a later time is the differences in groups that recreate (however you define that) and groups that merely occupy the same space or event.
Any thoughts?
I wasn't going to commment, but this was irresistable. In some ways, I always thought I was unique in preferring small groups and one-on-one interactions. With all the parties and dances and events that go on around BYU, that might be the case. But perhaps what scares people about the smaller groups is not the better interaction, but the increased vulnerability. In a large group you can float and never really have to reveal anything, while in a smaller group opportunities present themselves much more often to share deep, meaningful feelings and grow.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I think this post is an excellent argument on why to live in a small town. Go country.
I began to argue for small group activities, etc. in my ward and I was surprised at the people who supported me. People who I had thought were really outgoing and comfortable in large groups were agreeing with me that they secretly hated ward fhe's and big parties. I think more people agree with you, they just don't show it.
ReplyDeleteI think it has a little to do with how the adversary wants to destroy relationships of all kinds. He makes big parties, cities, etc look fun or the way to become popular or successful but in the end we loose the real success of developing one of the few things we get to take into the next life, relationships. I am not saying big parties, cities, or all that are bad in of themselves but can cause problems in people's lives if that is where they focus most of their efforts. (it is just Satan taking another decent thing and twisting it a little to make it harmful)
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