Life in the big city
If you work in a large business district, or even in most cases just live in the year 2006, you're likely to own a Walkman, Discman or MP3 player of some sort.
Trips to work can be so incredibly mundane that people seek to soothe their boredom with their favourite type of music, and rightly so. Listening to music, or your favourite radio show can help to pass the time on the way to work / activity of your choosing more comfortably.
What people seem to forget however, is that there are also thousands of other people doing exactly the same thing. Can you imagine if there was no such thing as portable music players?
Believe it or not kids, there was such a time. In the 70s, people in America seemed to walk around with enormous Ghettoblasters over their shoulder pumping out the 'latest vibes'. There was something fundementally different about this form of listening to music though. There's a distinct difference in the levels of isolation between those who listen with headphones and those who listen with speakers.
For most instances (mainly those mentioned a few paragraphs above), headphones are a really good idea. However, I can help thinking that the introduction of this level of isolation takes something away from our chance of social communication between fellow commuters and yourselves.
Picture this. You're on the train / bus / public transport vehicle of your choice to work / college / mundane location of your choice, and you don't have any form of musical stimulus other than your own voice.
If you're not a confident person, you're likely to stare at your shoes, or some other ground-level object for the entire journey. If however, you're a more forward person, you may care to start a conversation with a fellow commuter. Perhaps picking up on the fact you have the same bag, or you happen to be reading the same newspaper (likely).
I understand that most of the time people don't want to start conversations because it's 8am, you can still taste the toothpaste from the toothbrush that you lazily swished around your mouth, and you're still fishing bits of cornflake / sugar puff from your teeth wondering why you didn't brush your teeth after you had your cereal. But surely some people do still fancy the chance of talking to another person who shares the same journey with you on a daily basis?
If you make the same mundane trip to your chosen location, you get set into a routine, and so does everybody else. If you take the same form of transport every day, you're going to bump into the same people every day. Maybe one of these people could be your next love. Maybe they could be best friend for live. Next time you're on your way to your location of choice, take a minute to check out the people around you who make the same journey every day.
The possibilities are endless, and I certainly think it's worth considering.
Trips to work can be so incredibly mundane that people seek to soothe their boredom with their favourite type of music, and rightly so. Listening to music, or your favourite radio show can help to pass the time on the way to work / activity of your choosing more comfortably.
What people seem to forget however, is that there are also thousands of other people doing exactly the same thing. Can you imagine if there was no such thing as portable music players?
Believe it or not kids, there was such a time. In the 70s, people in America seemed to walk around with enormous Ghettoblasters over their shoulder pumping out the 'latest vibes'. There was something fundementally different about this form of listening to music though. There's a distinct difference in the levels of isolation between those who listen with headphones and those who listen with speakers.
For most instances (mainly those mentioned a few paragraphs above), headphones are a really good idea. However, I can help thinking that the introduction of this level of isolation takes something away from our chance of social communication between fellow commuters and yourselves.
Picture this. You're on the train / bus / public transport vehicle of your choice to work / college / mundane location of your choice, and you don't have any form of musical stimulus other than your own voice.
If you're not a confident person, you're likely to stare at your shoes, or some other ground-level object for the entire journey. If however, you're a more forward person, you may care to start a conversation with a fellow commuter. Perhaps picking up on the fact you have the same bag, or you happen to be reading the same newspaper (likely).
I understand that most of the time people don't want to start conversations because it's 8am, you can still taste the toothpaste from the toothbrush that you lazily swished around your mouth, and you're still fishing bits of cornflake / sugar puff from your teeth wondering why you didn't brush your teeth after you had your cereal. But surely some people do still fancy the chance of talking to another person who shares the same journey with you on a daily basis?
If you make the same mundane trip to your chosen location, you get set into a routine, and so does everybody else. If you take the same form of transport every day, you're going to bump into the same people every day. Maybe one of these people could be your next love. Maybe they could be best friend for live. Next time you're on your way to your location of choice, take a minute to check out the people around you who make the same journey every day.
The possibilities are endless, and I certainly think it's worth considering.
posted by Karl at
8:25 am
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