A Bus Trip
I am on the public transport 801, heading
to my destination. The passenger contains a large variety of races and occupation.
I can tell by looking at their outfit. Some of them are wearing dull suits and
carrying a small suitcase with them. Some are wearing colourful hoody and
carrying a stuffed boring backpack. One interesting thing is that everyone, regardless
of their occupation or outfit, are looking down at their smart devices. I bet I
would do the same if I did not choose to observe these commuters.
One more interesting thing is that all of them have their earphone
plugged in and enjoy a piece of isolated world that seems to be fragile to
interrupt. In my childhood, textbook and movie always tells me that western
culture likes to socialize with each other regardless of their age and
locations. So I always thought passengers are busying sharing their weekend
vacation or viewpoints on current news to the others. Or the typical, an old
man talks about how things were when he was at my age. However, in my eyes, I
only see people looking at the infinite far distance and listen to what their
device has to offer. Once a while an elder enters into the bus 801, he/she
actually looks isolated without his/her smart device. However, their eyes do
not look beyond what is current happening in the bus. They look for
conversation. I guess my old days textbooks or movies are either lying or
aging.
The
bus is awfully quiet. Even there is a conversation begins, the length will not
last longer than three sentences. All I heard are the roaming sound from the
engine or the artificial human language transmitted from the bus system. Differ
from Hong Kong, at least some of the passenger are talking on their phone when
they are standing in the public transportation. Here in the bus, I do not hear
anyone is on their phone. I do not know their background culture. I do not know
what language they speak. I do not know their voices. This stresses me out.
Since when, we begin to replace talking with texting? Since when, an hour long
bus trip can be devastatingly exhausted that I have to rely on my smart device
to kill the time? Since when, everyone lives on his/her smart devices? I decide
to, once a while, shut down my device and speak to an elder. I would like to
what Austin was like before 50 years ago. I would like to hear some real human
voices, regardless of the origin, as long as the origin is vivid and animated.
Interesting description, David! I have definitely been on silent, isolated bus trips like this, and I've been on others where people are talking quite a bit. The difference seems to correspond to the route and the time of day/week. On a weekend or a festival time on a central route, you may find a lot of groups of friends, and people may be talking to each other. However, I imagine that this bus ride was in the morning or evening on a regular work day commute, is that right? Thank you for these observations.
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