Scilence

The first day of class we walked in and took our seats, our teacher introduced himself, and then took a seat behind everybody in the back of the room. We looked around at each other uncertain of what to do, it was just expected that we would come in and the teacher would list off the rules, expectations, and maybe even begin teaching some material. We sat in silence for nearly five minutes, occasional nervous laughter breaking the quiet. I sat there thinking this is sooo awkward. Why was it awkward!? Why are we unable to just not talk. Silence is usually broken by somebody stating that, " this is awkward," or "awkward turtle." When you really take a step back and analyze that, it's really strange that people thinking silence is uncomfortable is so common that there is a widespread custom of what to do to break that silence. There's even a wikiHow on other ways to fill awkward silence(http://www.wikihow.com/Fill-Awkward-Silences)! Our teacher told us that silence is uncomfortable to us because we are not used to it! We grew up with T.V.s and even when were not watching a show there is a commercial; so many people have music on or the T.V. on while doing other things because they can't focus otherwise. This is really interesting and I'm sure that there are many ways that this affects us; but is it for the better?