By Riley Robinson, news correspondent
More than 60 people sat on blankets and yoga mats in the grass of Boston Common Saturday afternoon to make silent eye contact with strangers.
Boston was one of more than 160 cities worldwide to host The World’s Biggest Eye Contact Experiment, which was organized through Facebook by an Australian social movement called The Liberators International.
“The last 40 seconds you can relax and really think about what you’re learning from the other person,” said Ayman Ali, 22, of Norwalk, CT. “The second or third time it actually gets harder because you’re really seeing the other person, in a good way.”
Deborah Knight has been the Boston coordinator of the annual event for the past three years. She saw the Liberator’s online request for event coordinators during a time of personal heartbreak, when she noticed she was avoiding eye contact with others.
“I was terrified that they would really see me,” Knight said.
That’s when she responded to the Liberators’ online search for event coordinators.
“My first year, I came to Copley Plaza by myself with my sign,” she said. “About six people showed up. I was scared to death.”
Three years later, the sign is still making appearances and asks passersby, “Where has the human connection gone?”
The Boston event attracted thousands of RSVPs on Facebook and participants of all ages, including several college students. Phoebe Shaw, a freshman at Suffolk University, was among them.
“Especially here in Boston, we get very wrapped up in ourselves,” Shaw said, sitting cross-legged on a folded tapestry. “It’s nice to have this connection, even if it’s not on an emotional level.”
The Liberators’ other events also focus on interpersonal connection. These have included a worldwide sing-a-long and a trust experiment where blindfolded volunteers stood in public spaces and allowed strangers to hug them. The group’s founder, Peter Sharp, has spoken at TED events in Australia.
Earlier Saturday morning, Children’s Services of Roxbury attempted to organize the world’s largest human peace sign across the sidewalk from the eye contact challenge. Their booth was still blasting pop hits like “Despacito” when Elizabeth Rocco of Arlington walked over with her six-year-old daughter Ana to join the experiment’s silence. Rocco said she had been looking forward to the event since she read about it in July. She even wore a t-shirt bearing an eye motif and the experiment’s title.
“As a physician, I see a lot of people with mental and physical problems because of disconnection,” Rocco said. “This creates space for whatever you need to heal.”
Knight said she hopes the eye contact experiment will encourage participants to seek more personal connection in the future.
“Now, hopefully, when people are having dinner with their families, they’ll leave their devices to the side,” she said. “The more courageous you are, the more the world opens up to you.”
