Something instead of nothing

I enjoyed Klosterman's article "Something Instead of Nothing." He brings to mind questions that I am not so sure I would ever think to consider myself but indeed they are still interesting. Why do any of us feel compelled to answer a question? I definitely agree with Morris's statement that if people are expected to talk, "they do talk." This seems to make a lot of sense to me. I find that I often do many things simply because there is an often unspoken assumption that I am expected to (i.e. showing up for class). I also really liked the connection Klosterman made with Heath's statements; we do not necessarily answer questions because we are flattered by the attention but because we "feel as though we deserve to be. . ." possibly because the millions of us who aren't famous feel we are unheard and of course we value our own opinions. I feel like this all the time! I typically like answering questions in classes because I get to state aloud my thoughts and opinions and people (usually a teacher) have to at least pretend to be interested. Which brings to mind another point: people are more willing talk if they feel that the interviewer is genuinely interested in their story. I think that this is sort of a giving but actually seeing it helped me realize that when I conduct interviews for our final paper, I am going to have to be really attentive and sincere. I think I am going to learn that is much easier for me to be the interviewee than it is to be the interviewer. Yes, as the interviewer I don't have the burden of being misqouted or misunderstood in a personally detrimental way that maybe the interviewee does but I have an obligation to ask interesting questions that provoke interesting answers and interesting consequences. I am worried I won't be so good at this whole process but as Klosterman says, "It's something instead of nothing."