trained to smile
9 Nov
Colin and Joerg both commented on smiling or the lack thereof in portraiture, and I had a thought – can it be that our tendency to smile so much is influenced by exposure to the point of saturation to advertising? Aside from the usual moody blankness of high fashion, everyone in ads is smiling, having a good time.
I’m curious about how necessary citizens of other countries find it to smile all the time. My subjective experience has been that in the US people are more prone to smiling at strangers, at customers, at everybody. Which is mostly a good thing, but sometimes you can see that the smile is forced, which is awkward. People who don’t smile as often are seen as more unfriendly. I get the feeling that a person needs to smile a lot, especially if you’re female, to be perceived as friendly or not aloof when of course, those things don’t necessarily actually correlate.
It’s all speculation at this point. Thoughts?
somewhere i read that people in certain countries, such as russia, tend to view americans’ “constant” and seemingly “unprovoked” smiling as unnecessary and even downright dim. this was in reference to people smiling in person, such as when walking down the street, and perhaps also when greeting semi-acquaintances.