Wherever you go on public transport these days, you’ll see almost every one of your fellow passengers absorbed in their smartphones.
So I was a little surprised the other day when I saw somebody reading a *dead tree* newspaper on the train home.
Might I add, it was a copy of The Age and not a copy of mX bound for the cat litter box.
Wow, the Age still exists?
Cheeky bugger, said the old feller!
You see if I bury my head in my smartphone and cover my ears with headphones, I can ‘pretend’ i hear no evil and see no evil. That way I can ‘pretend’ I have no accountability for my fellow community members.
I am guilty as the person next to me. What to do?
Seriously, most of the bad treatment on public transport can be reduced by community members acting.
Thanks for this article Marcus.
I remember commuting to work near Caulfield station in the late 2000’s and seeing the occasional passenger struggling with the old broadsheet Age folding over bits of paper and the inevitable loose single page in the middle falling out. Come March 2013 and it switched to ‘compact’ size (Don’t mention the ‘t’ word though!)
The broadsheet version of The Age was had enough to fit into the lunch room at work – reading one on the train was an epic task!
The worst part is that with all these zombies everywhere, some places are putting in pedestrian lights in the pavement so people don’t have to look up at all http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-27/german-town-introduces-in-ground-traffic-lights-for-pedestrians/7363414
Somewhat similar traffic lights can be seen at tram stops in Docklands:
https://railgallery.wongm.com/melbourne-tram-stops/E114_8814.jpg.html
Of course, we’ve all seen photos like this.
https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*K5xa0DTTLUGcbsOvx7ET1A.jpeg
Different era, different medium.
Just like the “antisocial newspaper readers” meme that emerged a few years ago:
https://medium.com/alt-ledes/stop-sharing-this-photo-of-antisocial-newspaper-readers-533200ffb40f
None of them giving the ladies a seat, of course.
How did you take those photos? Smartphone??
DSLR – I carry it with me almost everywhere!