Elevator etiquette: avoiding the awkward
Matt Dial
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: ViewPoint
Michael Carter, a sophomore at ETSU, was walking through the Culp Center and having a casual conversation with a couple of friends. They were chatting it up about the Villanova and Pittsburgh basketball game from the night before. They were going to the third floor to have some of that satisfying cafeteria food and did not want to walk up the stairs. So, they decided to take the elevator because they were lazy. As they waited on the elevator to arrive, they continued their casual discussion on basketball. Then, the elevator doors opened and two other people were inside. The conversation came to a halt as the elevator doors closed and then began its slow climb up to the next floor. Carter and his friends stood in front of the two strangers in the back as if they were being escorted to the gas chamber or the electric chair. Nothing but awkward silence filled the enclosed box. The elevator stopped for what seemed like hours before the doors finally opened. The two strangers politely excused themselves from the awkward situation and went about their business. Carter and his friends continued their conversation on important topics in life, such as college sports.
Events like these occur everyday in the elevator, but why? Did Alexander Miles, the man who patented the electric elevator in October 1887, think that it would get to this point of uncomfortableness? Probably not, but it has and will continue to get more awkward if this uneasiness is not addressed.
Why is the elevator such an awkward place? Is it always this way? "If people are talking then it is not awkward," Carter said, "but if it is all people that I do not know then I do not talk."
The Culp Center elevator is a place that serves for constant stumbling moments that riders cannot escape. With a spiral ramp that is more trouble than it is worth to walk to the third floor, where the cafeteria and meeting rooms are located, the elevator is the best option.
Then, there are those who choose not to ride the elevator because of its "no way out" policy. Sophomore Brody Pillow had just eaten lunch before he was about to take the elevator downstairs. As he was approaching the elevator, a sudden feeling came over him. "I thought I was about to fart," Pillow said. Flatulence makes the awkward silence even more uncomfortable with a smell looming throughout the confined space. Passengers begin to make assumptions, everyone is a victim and anyone could be to blame at the same time until someone erupts with a "who did that?" So, Pillow took the stairs.
Events like these occur everyday in the elevator, but why? Did Alexander Miles, the man who patented the electric elevator in October 1887, think that it would get to this point of uncomfortableness? Probably not, but it has and will continue to get more awkward if this uneasiness is not addressed.
Why is the elevator such an awkward place? Is it always this way? "If people are talking then it is not awkward," Carter said, "but if it is all people that I do not know then I do not talk."
The Culp Center elevator is a place that serves for constant stumbling moments that riders cannot escape. With a spiral ramp that is more trouble than it is worth to walk to the third floor, where the cafeteria and meeting rooms are located, the elevator is the best option.
Then, there are those who choose not to ride the elevator because of its "no way out" policy. Sophomore Brody Pillow had just eaten lunch before he was about to take the elevator downstairs. As he was approaching the elevator, a sudden feeling came over him. "I thought I was about to fart," Pillow said. Flatulence makes the awkward silence even more uncomfortable with a smell looming throughout the confined space. Passengers begin to make assumptions, everyone is a victim and anyone could be to blame at the same time until someone erupts with a "who did that?" So, Pillow took the stairs.
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