Almost always while returning home from college I stare at the screen of my smartphone and check Facebook, Youtube, etc. Once, however, I looked up and saw that literally everyone else around was doing the same. Nobody was talking, laughing, not even smiling.
- Are people in general still able to make contact with anyone outside of the internet?
- Would you speak to a stranger next to you on a bus if you weren’t using your phone all the time ? ;)
Comments
I think people now are still able to contact each other outside of the Internet, provided that it's not talking with a stranger. People in Poland are very distrustful and mean to strangers. I don't know why - in other countries it's normal to talk to strangers in train or bus. To be honest I wouldn't talk to stranger, because I would be afraid to be ignored or something like that. On the other hand when I go somewhere by train and an old lady or man is sitting next to me and starts to talk to me I reply and we talk. I know those people don't have Facebook accounts or anything else to entertain them so I'm trying to :)
Even though I prefer talking face to face, I wouldn't talk to a stranger on a bus. It's just respecting someone's personal space. When I'm going by bus I just want to be left alone and wouldn't want anyone to talk to me.
https://goo.gl/images/m2PbVr
Maybe public transport is just a bad place to talk with other people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh_I19_mKkU :)
However, I agree with this TED speaker. Even though social media are useful and provide entertainment, they contribute to deterioration of our social skills. As Zygmunt Bauman said: “Most people use social media not to open their horizons wider, but to lock themselves in a comfort zone”.
I'm not really into small talks with random people, I don't think I would talk with anyone that I don't know without any reason.
Social media fill our free time. Unfortunately social media makes us unsocial. That is sad but true. Some people really should *logout to life* and try to meet in real world.
May you think I am freak but I often start talk to stranger people on gym (yes they also use there phone). And suprise! The are able to start normal conversation. In my opinion talking face to face i hundreds of times better. Of course social media are great tool to keep in touch with freinds who live far away from us, but whe should spend more time with people from our surroundings to keep beter relations with them.
On my vacation I'm never using a phone for work, just for photos or to make a movie for example under a waterfall. It is good to share good moments with friends via Messenger when they know where you are but posting it on Facebook to all.. Hmmm I'm against that.
I recommend reading on ex-Facebook president Sean Parker thoughts, in quote "Facebook's first president, Sean Parker, has been sharply critical of the social network, accusing it of exploiting human "vulnerability." more here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-facebook-president-sean-parker-social-network-human-vulnerability-2017-11?IR=T
In short he talks about the design of facebook to exploit the natural need human of social-validation by dosing dopamine-shots with likes and so on. Making money out of it of course.
I wouldn't speak to a stranger on a bus but I tend to see senior/older people often do it. Just a friendly, small talk with some laughs maybe. It's an old school though.
On my way home I see that people on the bus or train look at their phones, but not everyone. Some talk to their friends/family and laughing, some talk on the phone.
Would you speak to a stranger next to you on a bus ? I wouldn't talk with anyone that I don't know without any reason or background and it's nothing wrong with that.
People say that today teens spend too much time in social network, not communicating with their families - ok, but they are teens, no matter what, they will find a thousand reasons to avoid communication with the family, because of that age. My grandmother used to read newspapers, my mom reads Facebook articles. Stop blaming the social media, people are the same:)
And no, I'm not gonna speak to a stranger in the bus, because I am an introvert and I would rather read something interesting on my phone. Even more, I often use my phone not to talk to random strange people around me:)
But that does not make me more or less social than anyone else i enjoy peace and sometimes being social brings chaos.
It's true though that we started to notice less and less of what's around us i favor of our phones which we can observe daily in buses while we commute.
Unfortunately not having my headphones would not make me more likely to engage in conversation with other people on bus, as much as that would help its my choice not to engage if i want to (which sometimes happens) i usually just take off my headphones and do so.
Would it affect other in my opinion not in poland we value our undisturbed selves so anyone engaging in a conversation with us which we did not started would be an invader rather than a friend.
Back in the day when people used to spend months together on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic, or in the Orient Express it made sense to get to know each other. As the technology evolved however, travelling for faster and faster. Nowadays the most time you spend in city bus is probably an hour. In a bus full of tired people, coming back from work, thinking of how they still have to walk their dog and take out the trash before they can finally hit the bed, it's hard to expect people to be enthusiastic about the possibility of spending a lot of energy on getting to know their co-passengers, they might never meet again.
Travelling by train is a different case, when doing that I do usually end up talking with people I am going to spend the next few hours with.
*a city bus
*about/less than an hour
I don’t think I would speak to a stranger standing next to me in a bus as I would feel a little bit strange, as in Poland it is not so common, especially for young people, to talk to others in public transport. Most of the people are suspicious in their nature and they would try to avoid interaction when someone would try to speak to them.
Btw watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2qjRG6iV8M&ab_channel=Vsauce2
Social Media are a great way to stay in contact with our friends from all over the world. That is some how amazing, that it's so easy to speak with my friend from Italy, or that I see how my best friend from primary school is doing in LA. It motivates me to try that new things, see the world, try to find my place.
But there's such a thing as common sense. We have to remember, that we are still humans, that we are alive. Everyday gives us a chance to meet great people. To have those friends we need to meet them in a first place. And then all we need to do- is speak. If we don't have that confidence to ask someone, try to start that conversation and see where it leads, we will be lonely.
However, I am not kind of person who would speak to a stranger in a bus, just because i wanted to talk to someone. Everyone has a right to stay in his own comfort zone, I don't want to interrupt. But I will definitely complement someone if I like so much his/her shoes ;)