Promptly following the end of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I race to Perkins Student Center and prepare myself for work. Working at Dunkin, I am certainly exposed to many students throughout the day, so this analysis we were instructed to make lasted around 4 hours for me rather than 15 mins.

In the short breaks I got between crafting iced coffee and making lattes I was mindful to watch some of the behavior going on around me. Easiest for me to take note of were the students at the register. I carefully examined their tone and body language. Most students were polite and said kind words to the cashiers. Yet this did not come as a surprise to me as our generation is known to be more kind and patient than your average baby boomer or Generation X.

What I did notice from my fellow peers trying to get their fix of coffee for the day was a lack of eye contact. Many had their heads buried into their phones even as they shared conversation with the cashier, only glancing up occasionally. Often times they were making a phone call, confusing the cashier and messing up the order because the student was not paying attention as it was read back to them. However this was a rare occasion, but nevertheless an interesting observation.

As things in the coffee shop slowed down I really had nothing better to do than “people watch”. What I saw didn’t vary much, as almost everyone had a laptop open, a medium iced coffee in close proximity, and AirPods in their ears. Faint conversations and lots of clicking on keyboards filled the air. Some students stayed hours, while some only dropping in briefly between classes.

Taking the time to observe how all of these strangers interacted with each other throughout the shift was enlightening. Overall, my takeaway from the experience is coffee places like Dunkin create the perfect atmosphere to get some work done or engage in casual conversation with friends. They are a social hub, and a pretty central part to any college campus.