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Humans Doing Human Things, which was created on May 26, 2021, describes itself as a “blog of human things”, and it certainly does a great job of capturing some of the weirdest behavior we humans often exhibit. From how we choose to entertain ourselves to what we choose to wear when going grocery shopping, there is no limit to the amount of bizarre things we can come up with. In fact, following an account dedicated to documenting our own behavior can be considered a “human thing” in and of itself. And there are plenty of us who have decided to do so, as Humans Doing Human Things has over 98k followers.
We reached out to the creator on Facebook to hear what inspired them to start this catalog of silly human photos, and they provided a concise, yet extremely fitting response. “I just like Humans, I especially like when they do human things,” they told Bored Panda. We hope you do too pandas! Because you’re certainly in for some unique displays of humanity on this list.
Most of us don’t think much about what it means to be a human every day. We go about our lives, go to work, take care of our families and try to get as much enjoyment out of our time on Earth as possible. But have you ever wondered what an alien might think of us? Well, according to Steve Stewart-Williams, author of The Ape That Understood the Universe, there are several things that alien scientists might find strange about us. Psychologist Rob Henderson breaks down some of the ideas from Stewart-Williams’ book in an article for Psychology Today, first noting that having “proximate” and “ultimate” causes of human behavior is a unique trait.
He provides the example of reproduction. A human can argue that they’re engaging in sex because it feels good or because they’re trying to start a family. The pleasure that comes along with it is the proximate cause, and having children as a result is considered the ultimate cause. The same can be said for eating a food that we find delicious. You might eat lasagna for dinner because it’s your favorite food, and you enjoy it. But you also need to eat something to keep yourself alive, so hunger might be the ultimate cause.
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Rob Henderson also notes that aliens might find it odd that our evolution can help explain disease risk. He provides the example of how women today are at about 100 times higher risk of developing breast cancer than pre-agricultural women. “For most of human history, women spent a large portion of their reproductive years either pregnant or breastfeeding. This meant that they didn’t menstruate as often as today. In hunter-gatherer conditions, a woman would have about 100 menstrual cycles in her lifetime,” Rob explains. “In the modern world, women reach puberty at earlier ages, have fewer pregnancies, and spend less time nursing. Today, women have as many as 400 menstrual cycles. This exposes them to higher levels of ovarian hormones and fluctuations, which increases the odds of breast cancer.”
The way that humans find love might be bizarre for an alien to observe as well. Rob explains that for the majority of human history, we lived in small communities with only about 150 people. We had extremely limited options when it came to love, yet people managed to form deep bonds with one another. Today, it seems like our dating opportunities are endless, but many of us continue to search for one person who we can share a deep and powerful bond with. “Even though we live in urban areas full of potential partners and can even open an app to meet someone new, we still care deeply about our mating partners and experience pain upon losing them,” Rob notes.
Another uniquely human thing that might be hard to explain to an alien is the beloved meme. Memes might be hard for a human grandparent to understand, let alone an alien, but Rob explains how memes are “analogous to genes”. “Just as some genes are more likely to survive and replicate, the same holds true for memes. Some ideas and practices are more useful than others, and are thus more likely to survive."
“But here’s the weird part: The determining factor for whether a meme will be passed on is whether survival benefits the meme itself, not the person using it,” he writes. “Just as a gene doesn’t ‘care’ about the survival of an organism, but rather the survival of itself, a meme doesn’t ‘care’ about the survival of the meme-holder, but simply its own survival. Memes are not conscious any more than genes are conscious. They simply act in a way to maximize their own survival.”
When it comes to what separates us humans from other species on Earth, it can be tricky to pinpoint what precisely makes us unique. Adam Rutherford wrote a piece for The Guardian exploring this topic, and he noted that, “Prudent skepticism is required when we compare ourselves with other beasts.”
“Evolution accounts for all life, but not all traits are adaptations,” Adam writes. “We use animals in science every day to try to understand complex biochemical pathways in order that we might develop drugs or understand disease. Mice, rats, monkeys, even cats, newts and armadillos, provide invaluable insights into our own biochemistry, but even so, all researchers acknowledge the limitations of those molecular analogies; we shared ancestors with those beasts millions of years ago, and our evolutionary trajectories have nudged that biochemistry to suit each species as it is today.”
