For close to 4,600 times in my life I have sat next a total stranger on the bus ~ the strange social game of 'who sits where' plays itself out on many buses twice a day. I do my best to blank out and think of nothing, sleep or just veg, while another person next to me does the same thing. We ignore each other. Over the years the bus has become more digital as people listen to ipods, text on iphones or watch missed issues of Family Guy or Drawn Together so the ignoring becomes easier, all kinds of gadgets have replaced reading the newspaper or reading books. The only people who talk are friends or tourists.
The bus ride is such a social phenomenon, kinda like picking teams in the playground. The previous example you want to get picked as soon as possible, you don't want to be left alone or behind. But on the bus, solitude is your best friend. Funny how times change... I see people's faces as I move down the aisle searching for my seat. Some people sit in the the aisle seat to discourage a person picking them for a window seat, others put there bag on the seat warning people off a seat duet. We crave the solitude.
This week I have decided to do something different, I am going to introduce myself to my seat-side companion. Strike up a conversation and smile, whoever the person is. I think it would be a funny movie script or even a documentary about the need to encircle ourselves with devices and inner space.
Wish me luck on my commuting caper.
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Comments: 7
People do not understand cell phone etiquette. It is not polite to sit in a room like that and carry on a conversation that loudly - when he could have just as easily gone outside and conducted his business. I much prefer the cocoon approach over the let me hear everybody else's business approach.