A click of a pen

It was early in the semester; maybe the second or third week of classes. My Philosophy teacher had just begun lecturing again – his style of lecturing still a bit new to the class.

The professor reached an important point made by the reading we had for the class, and emphasized it, waiting on the class to start taking notes. Still being early in the semester, still not sure of the exact nuances of the teaching style, practically the whole class was hesitant. No notes were taken.

Tired of the awkward waiting, and finally having acquired my pen, I clicked it to begin writing.

*CLICK!*

Just like that, as I began writing, so did the class. I’m no leader here, and I’m not even sitting in the front of the class. That one tiny little sound cue – that mechanical clicking of the pen from the back of the room – cut the tension and initiated note taking for most of the class.

Human behavior is kinda funny like that, isn’t it? Unsure of whether or not they should be taking notes, they were clearly caught in-between the decision to just keep listening or to start taking notes, and an example – one based off of just a brief sound cue – of someone else choosing an option, led them to choose it for themselves.

People are weird.