Car ride conversations

I think it is time for an extensive post, regarding seating in cars, with varying amounts and types of people. I will start with my recent experience.

Today I was sitting in the back seat on a car trip with two people, one in the driver's seat and one in the passenger's seat. It occured to me that I was ostrisized from the other two. I could not have a real conversation because they could not look at me. Eye contact is very important to meaningful conversations. This lead to a great amount of time in awkward silence. It was eventually broken, but even then, it was not a natural conversation, it was a car conversation.

You might be wondering, what could that be? Well I'll explain. A car conversation is not a normal conversation in that it is strained 2 main ways. The first is you don't want to disrupt the driver. The second is a great divide between the front and back seats. It is very easy to have conversations with the people next to you, but when in the front seat, you have to either strain to look in the back, or you have to talk to the window, and hope they react as you would like. If you are in the back, you either have to have the fronters strain (which you have no control of), or you talk to the back of a seat. Again, eye contact is key in communication.

So if there are 4 total people, the conversation inevitably gets split, besides the occasional shout out to the others, which tends to lead to the split soon after. But the great combination is 3 people, so that there is no conversation at all. Somehow this breaks the front seat conversations, because of the awkwardness of having the back seater out of the loop. This almost always leads to the greatest idea ever regarding car entertainment, music. Music fills the silence nicely, and entertains the passengers, stopping the need for conversation at all, and allowing anyone who wants to, to just zone out.

Now, its time to start to talk about variations depending on the types of people, and their locations. First is the quite, observer type, who likes to think about what to say before saying it, and at the same time usually does not spur on the conversation, in other words me. This type of person will rely on the other people to start a conversation, but will be grateful if one happens. In the 4 person scenario, they will do fine, as they will probably just talk to the person next to them. the problem is in the 3 person. No matter where they are, the conversation will feel awkward, and the music default is a very likely end.

The second type is the opposite, the super talkative and inquisitive type. They tend to want to know anything about everyone. They are doing this to not only fill the silence(which they cannot handle at all), but also to quench their need to know everyone better. They think that the secrets to a person are found in their favorite color, or how many sibling they have. Now I don't think there is no information to be desired in those questions, but there are definitely better ways to get to know people.

Instead of doing another type, I feel I should mention the tired situation. If one person is tired, and 3 others are not, then the 3 others will not respect the restful wishes of the one tired person. They will intentionally disrupt that person, and in that disruption will spur on conversation. There is but one hope for the tired person, and that is the 3 person scenario, with the tired one in the back. Then he can use his ostracization to his advantage, and hope the fronters leave him alone, but he should be prepared for music, as it is almost always present at some point.

While there are many more scenarios to address, I will leave them to further posts, look forward to Car Ride Conversations 2 at some point in the future.