People watching
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Peoplewatching" redirects here. 'Peoplewatching' is also the title of a book by Desmond Morris.
 |
This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (June 2008) |
People watching or crowd watching is the act of observing people and their interactions, usually without their knowledge. This differs from voyeurism in that it does not relate to sex or sexual gratification, and from girl watching as being anthropological rather than aesthetic.[1]
Eavesdropping may accompany the activity, though is not required.[2]
Though often a casual hobby, it can be used formally as a means for sociological/anthropological/psychological research. Naturalistic observation is another more formal way of describing people watching, based in a psychological perspective.
[edit] Ethics
[edit] Media interest
- An October 2006 article in The New York Times discusses the practice of people watching and the importance of such to understand the city [1].
- A series of "Overheard in..." websites have popped up showing the act of people watching all over the world, for example [2].
- The British television comedy Watching is related to people watching.
- The movie Blowup and Julio Cortazar's tale Las babas del diablo in which the movie is based are related to people watching.
