5 Ways People Treat Darkness Differently in a Power Outage

Growing up, our cities had many power outages every year. Traveling around the world as a child, I experienced even more blackouts, some which lasted several days.

It was always an awesome experience until you were sweating or freezing because of not being able to use the air conditioner or the heater. It was also very adventurous getting ready or doing things around the house. Not being able to watch TV, for the few hours that I did back then on a daily basis because someone else was watching it, resulted in the balcony being visited a lot.

We had a major power outage (blackout) last night, which lasted for hours. These days, power outages are treated with the “WTH! Power outage in 2012? WHAT IS THIS? I’M GOING TO COMPLAIN!” by people, more than “Power’s out again!” that we used to.

At first, it was very interesting to experience the total darkness which we rarely experience anymore. I’m up at nights most of the time already, and I usually (maybe always) like the lights turned off. The light from the monitor lights up the area around me every night.

A power outage was a very beautiful experience, with the monitor light being taken out of the picture also.

Having actual total darkness, with no other option than to have a candle or use a flashlight, is awesome in my view.

Soon, though, I realized that we, the humans, act very differently when electricity is taken away from us.

We rely on electricity so much that we start acting like souls who have never been in the areas where we live. I wrote about 5 things I learned in the blackout on my phone excitedly, and wanted to share it with my The Reasoner readers too.

5 Ways People Act Differently in a Power Outage

Here are 5 ways people act different when there is a power outage.

1. People become very cautious and alert walking in the dark.

   I realized this now, while writing this article. People will actually act very cautious walking around the house during a power outage. When you want to go to the kitchen in the middle of a regular night in the dark, you simply walk over. In a power outage, you act as if you’ve never walked this path before.

2. People love being outside only when the inside is pitch dark.

   I saw almost everyone in the neighborhood sitting or walking outside, including in their patios and balconies, when the power went out. It was a very cool night, so people were most probably outside because the inside of their homes had all of a sudden become completely useless or less attractive to them.

3. Everyone loves candles or flashlights, inside and outside, but not so much when it’s dark normally (without a blackout).

   It was very interesting seeing so many people use candles and flashlights when the power was out. Even on very dark nights and in the middle of the nights when everyone has power, people rarely use candles, and you probably never see anyone with a flashlight at nights anymore.

4. People feel excited walking out alone with a flashlight or candle in a complete blackout, but people are scared of the same areas on regular nights during very late hours even with some nearby light around

   It’s interesting how, maybe because of excitement in the first few hours of a blackout at least, people will walk around in very dark areas with flashlights or without much worry, but the same people will be scared of the same areas at night even if there was some distant light shining and lighting up the path a little bit.

5. Not having internet on laptop makes me use my phone to do things I rarely do, like write this essay, without ever feeling “I can do this more awesomely on the laptop!“

   I’ve always wanted phones with bigger screens, and even though the Samsung Galaxy Note is not available for Sprint, I treated my phone (with less than 20% battery) with great respect and admiration that we usually do when we’re on a laptop. With such a power outage, my Evo 4G phone made me feel as if I was simply waiting for the laptop to go online to play Borderlands and watch movies on Netflix.

What do you think?

When was the last time you experienced a blackout? What things do you think people, and yourself, do different during a blackout?

Please let me know share your thoughts or comments below. If you’re having a power outage right now, you’re hopefully using your phone to read this.

Thanks for reading!