Walking behind people

Post Reply New Topic

When you go to the store, or if someone is showing you around somewhere or taking you somewhere, do you walk along side (With them) or behind them?
I walk behind them, I don't usually realize it.
With my grandma, I'll walk behind her. But when I was being showed around Target for the job, the guy said "walk with me, why do you keep walking behind me?"

I walk behind them.

I always walk behind people if they showing me around or i'm with them

Better than the people at my school who walk really slow, or don't watch where they go because they're too busy yakking on their cell phones.

How many times have I heard that one...

Yes, I almost always walk behind people, regardless of the circumstance.
There are two reasons that I do this, I think.

One is basically a socially-insecure deference. In other words, I don't want to offend anyone, so I think that by constantly letting them go first, I will stay on their good side. Pathetic, but pretty straightforward psychological pathology.

The other is a manifestation of my own spatial requirements and sensibilities. I cannot stand for anyone to be behind me, so I always try to stay behind everyone else. This is true wherever I go. I will have my back to the wall, and let everyone be in front of me. Probably so I can keep track of them and prevent any surprises or unexpected encounters. Yet another thing I've done my whole life and not understood until now...

I walk behind them too, I read somewhere that its also an old-fashioned Japanese culture thingie/custom

Depends how much room there is. Both, I guess.

Wow.

I walk before them or to their side. Preferably to their left side if I want to focus on them and on their right side if I want to do my own thing.

I never walk behind them. That would be the position of the outcast, the puppy-dog or the criminal.

I usually go behind and to the right, so its kindof like im doing both

i usually speed up and walk in front of them. i am not sure why. if they are showing me where to go, i will stop and ask them to point to where i should go and then i walk to there and wait if i have to until they catch up.

with just the general public, i have an urge to pass everyone i walk behind. people walk on the footpath in unspoken lanes, and in australia you walk on the left side of the footpath. sometimes i am stuck behind walkers, but there is a stream of people coming the other way. it is like traffic on the road. i wait for a gap in the oncoming traffic and then i imagine my body has a V8 engine in it and i cross the centre line and do a "kickdown" and speed past the slower walkers and then cut in in front of them before i collide with the next oncoming walker.

the strange thing is i do not naturally walk fast if i am not around other walkers.
i have some subconscious urge to get in front of other walkers no matter how fast they walk. i will almost have to run to keep in front of power walkers for example. i think it comes from the days when i was a kid and we were in our ford galaxie on country trips and my father always perceived people in front to be obstacles. even if they were going as fast as he intended to go, he still had to pass them. i also shared that attitude and i felt relieved when all the cars in the convoy had been overtaken and we were on clean unobstructed road.

Yeah, that's exactly why I do walk behind. I'm not important enough to be in front or equal with whoever I'm walking with. I walk to the right and a step behind.

People have called me on it before and said they don't like it and asked me to walk with them but I can't.. as soon as they stop noticing, I drop back again.

I walk behind people, but not because I feel less-than....it's simply because walking beside someone, particularly indoors, can be clunky and awkward, and I cannot STAND the feeling of someone walking close behind me.

I walk close behind people in supermarkets or shopping malls usually because there is too much sensory stuff going on and all I can do is follow and look at the floor otherwise I will become overwhelmed.

If I walk in front of someone I don't know where I'm going. If I walk beside I have the tendency to wander. Behind is better.

I find it's easier to walk behind people because then you don't have to think about where you are going. If you walk alongside someone, you have to interpret their body language telling you where they are going, which can be confusing. Of course, I like to walk alone alot too.

Oh, I always walk in front when I walk alone.