You’re unlikely to find things this way, because you’re thinking of named activities that you noticed happening. Both of those limitations select for things that are socially relevant—the ‘named things’ one especially, because the things that there are names for are things that are socially interesting, that people would want to talk about, and that’s going to be almost entirely social-signaling things.
It seems like you’d do better to think about actions that don’t have specific, short names, and that people don’t usually pay attention to, either in themselves or in others. For example, where in a (communal) closet one hangs one’s coat, or what direction one faces when in the shower.
For example, where in a (communal) closet one hangs one’s coat, or what direction one faces when in the shower.
I can imagine people bring this up in conversation in order to signal camaraderie (showing equal status) or caring about what the person says. In order to find activities that don’t have any signaling power, you have to consider the value system of the group you’re in. It’s wrong to ask this question to people who may live in cultures or have friends with different value systems.
I don’t think there exists a “universal non-signaling activity.” I can imagine any activity be signal-worthy given a value system that values it.
A better question to ask: “What are your least signaling activities?”
Most of the ways I can think of for that require a very solid sense of self-awareness (would you keep doing X if every social group you were currently involved with, or had recently been involved with, mildly disapproved of it, but you still found it useful?) and thus probably aren’t very useful to most people.
Things you’d be surprised to find that others had noticed at all, while a small subset of non-signaling things, seems like one of the more robust ways of finding accurate ones, which is what I was trying to get at in my original comment. And yes, that’ll vary widely from one social group to another. (Implication: Picking your social groups wisely is important.)
You’re unlikely to find things this way, because you’re thinking of named activities that you noticed happening. Both of those limitations select for things that are socially relevant—the ‘named things’ one especially, because the things that there are names for are things that are socially interesting, that people would want to talk about, and that’s going to be almost entirely social-signaling things.
It seems like you’d do better to think about actions that don’t have specific, short names, and that people don’t usually pay attention to, either in themselves or in others. For example, where in a (communal) closet one hangs one’s coat, or what direction one faces when in the shower.
I can imagine people bring this up in conversation in order to signal camaraderie (showing equal status) or caring about what the person says. In order to find activities that don’t have any signaling power, you have to consider the value system of the group you’re in. It’s wrong to ask this question to people who may live in cultures or have friends with different value systems.
I don’t think there exists a “universal non-signaling activity.” I can imagine any activity be signal-worthy given a value system that values it.
A better question to ask: “What are your least signaling activities?”
Good point.
Most of the ways I can think of for that require a very solid sense of self-awareness (would you keep doing X if every social group you were currently involved with, or had recently been involved with, mildly disapproved of it, but you still found it useful?) and thus probably aren’t very useful to most people.
Things you’d be surprised to find that others had noticed at all, while a small subset of non-signaling things, seems like one of the more robust ways of finding accurate ones, which is what I was trying to get at in my original comment. And yes, that’ll vary widely from one social group to another. (Implication: Picking your social groups wisely is important.)