I'm sure we've all noticed that after a snow fall, people on the street are much more cheerful and friendly to each other, sometimes partaking taking part in group activities like clearing their drives/the pavement or rather more childish or child-friendly things like building snow men, sledging or throwing snowballs.
When I popped to the shops yesterday lunchtime, I was surprised to see large groups of people just standing around chatting, despite the cold.
Part of this is down to the novelty value or the sense of 'shared hardship', but I suspect the main reason is because the fresh snow is so white and bright that it reflects all the sunlight, thus suddenly and temporarily reversing the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder by acting as a kind of 'light therapy'. During a snowfall at night, even the skies are brighter because the falling snow reflects all the urban lighting back down again.
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13 comments:
"Part of this is down to the novelty value"
In my experience, a lot of people want to chat, but need an ice-breaker (no pun intended). I used to travel at weekends on a railway line subject to frequent breakdowns. When these happened, everyone in the compartment, who had been ignoring each other, would start to chat, the icebreaker being a good moan about the unreliability of the trains on that line.
B, that's a widely observed effect, it's called 'shared hardship'. It can flip over the other way if e.g. the supermarkets are running out of food, in which case it's every shopper for himself and Devil take the hindmost.
Tsk Tsk !!
It's "participating in"....
"Partake" does not mean to take part, regrettably a very common error committed by folk trying to be clever.
REB, fair point, but nobody says "participating in". How about "taking part in"?
I wonder if a simpler explanation might be at work which accounts for the "instant on / instant off" nature of the good humour - it provokes memories of childhood / Christmas (perhaps not explicitly, but conjures the mood).
By the way, it's been chilly but beautifully sunny up here, with no trace of snow :-)
Love the snow me!
I noticed it when clearing the drive yesterday. Today it's brown slush and folk stump along without looking up.
"Partake" does not mean to take part, regrettably a very common error committed by folk trying to be clever."
Better tell dictionary.com then
par·take
[pahr-teyk] Show IPA verb, -took, -tak·en, -tak·ing.
verb (used without object)
1.
to take or have a part or share along with others; participate (usually followed by in ): He won't partake in the victory celebration.
Anyone on here using Firefox 10.
You can highlight a word on a web page then right click to search on Google.
Now who can't like that
I stay in when it snows.
Conteracting SAD is an interesting one. Perhaps we should make all roads and pavements white (most people see some of these each day). This might have the added effect of stimulating global cooling by reflecting sunlight away from the earth.
FT, yes the inner child thing also plays a rôle.
SG, glad somebody appreciates it.
AKH, ta for back up.
W42, ta, but i found it best to concede. "Partake" is a stupid word and i don't know why I used it in the first place.
Din, fascinating. What's Firefox 10? I didn't even know they'd made Firefox II.
MF, perhaps all the grumpy people stay in, thus increasing the average cheerfulness of those who venture out?
QP, it'd be an expensive experiment if I'm wrong, plus it's the sudden hit of white that makes the big difference. If all pavements were white all the time, maybe the effect would wear off. And there's a risk that painting everything white would trigger the next Ice Age...
Mark - fair enough!
Woodsy - the website you quote is American. They have their own version of the English language - which differs in many respects from English English. Partake and participate is but one example and as this is an English blog, then English should be the norm. I am now going to take the elevator down to the sidewalk and will grab a hot dog before I jump the Amtrack to Chicago.
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