Things Lost to Connectivity

I usually drove to work but since I’ve got a party tonight decided to take public transit. I forgot how interesting people watching can be. Bummer. So many sliding door opportunities lost while people look at their screens.

 

I live in a big city and haven't had a license in years. It is fascinating the effect that cell phones have had on public transport.

I've seen a lot less casual chit-chat - even for the big cold city. On the other hand, the black looks of despair in the morning commute have faded now that people have something to occupy themselves with.

 

My break room at work, you get five or six people on there, most everyone is on their phone, no one talking. Except a couple people who literally talk nonstop to anyone about anything.

We even have a landline in there where people would be tracked down sometimes. I don’t think it’s rung in 10 years.

 

It always makes me feel awkward when people have very public conversations on their phone in public - the Facetime stuff. It weird right?

 

I feel this too, but is it any more weird than if the person on the phone is there in person? At least you can hear both ends of the conversation.

 

Our new upstairs neighbors went away yesterday and asked if we could collect their mail while they're away. It reminded me of how people would pause their newspaper subscriptions while they were on vacation decades ago, and then pick up all the papers when they got back so they could catch up on what happened. (My Dad still collects the papers for his neighbors when they go away) Our new neighbors are in their 20s and have probably never read a newspaper in their lives.

 

Do they know you can have the post office hold your mail while you’re gone?

 

How about the fact that we don't know our neighbors the way we did 20 years ago.

 

Lots of stories about post office workers telling their unscrupulous friends who is on vacation and what their address is.

 

I absolutely agree with this.

Mrs. t_b_f absolutely shocked me last weekend when she said of all the places we've lived, this is her least favorite, simply because we don't have the interaction with and connection to our neighbors like we've had in other places.

 

I was taking Amtrak from NYC back to Richmond on Sunday, and the woman in the seat in front of me was having a full-blown, no headphones, Facetime convo with her son at college. Like what in the actual fuck? I almost starting chiming in to give some advice to little Johnny about his physics final. FFS people, no one wants to hear that conversation on a crowded train.

My add to this: People who can't get off their goddamn phones when they're walking. I walk a lot in our city, and the amount of times I have to alert someone that they're about to walk straight into me because they can't peel their face away from their phone is mind boggling.

Get off my lawn and shit, but our addiction to screens is really, really bad. It's made us a very anti-social society. Had a couple of friends ask why I didn't post more videos from Massive Nights last weekend, and I was like, because I wanted to enjoy the damn concerts without trying to film them? Novel concept, I know.

 

I give phone walkers a good shoulder check and tell them to pay attention to where they’re walking. Absolutely infuriating.