Day 13: Life Like an Elevator

DAEMONIC01

July 18, 2025

Day 13: Life Like an Elevator

Sometimes life is like an elevator. It gets tight, until you have to open your mouth and say something before the silence becomes unbearable. We feel that we have to talk, even if we don't want to or don't know what to talk about. It's a solution for awkward silence. Just like in an elevator. When we get too close to each other, the silence intensifies, and there's a breaking point, where the awkwardness becomes greater than our inhibitions. Then we start talking, but it's often counterproductive because we end up being more awkward than the silence we were trying to escape.

But why is it?

In a world full of noise, silence is suspicious, so we start talking about weather, neighbors, or another boring things. It's a situational influence. We act differently than we usually do. It happens so many other situations, like when we driving near a police car, or walking in front of a guard. However these are examples of authority-driven pressure.

No one forces us to act differently. No one tells us to speak, smile, or behave a certain way in those moments.
And yet, we do. Maybe it's because the pressure doesn't have to come from outside. Sometimes, the idea that someone might judge us is enough. And so we perform not for them, but to reassure ourselves that we still fit.
That's how we get to one of the society's craziest mechanism: social conformity. But more on that tomorrow!

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shadowfax26

Day 13: Life Like an Elevator

Sometimes life is like an elevator.

It gets tight, until you have to open your mouth and say something before the silence becomes unbearable.

We feel that we have to talk, even if we don't want to or don't know what to talk about.

It's a solution for awkward silence.

Just like in an elevator.

When we get too close to each other, the silence intensifies, and there's a breaking point, where the awkwardness becomes greater than our inhibitions.

Then we start talking, but it's often counterproductive because we end up being more awkward than the silence we were trying to escape.

But why is it?

In a world full of noise, silence is suspicious, so we start talking about weather, neighbors, or another boring things.

It's a situational influence.

We act differently than we usually do.

It happens in so many other situations, like when we are driving near a police car, or walking in front of a guard.

However these are examples of authority-driven pressure.

No one forces us to act differently.

No one tells us to speak, smile, or behave a certain way in those moments.

And yet, we do.

Maybe it's because the pressure doesn't have to come from outside.

Sometimes, the idea that someone might judge us is enough.

And so we perform not for them, but to reassure ourselves that we still fit.

That's how we get to one of the society's craziest mechanism: social conformity.

But more on that tomorrow!

It's a solution for awkward silence.