this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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Lmao what the fuck
Its a call to be present.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wearing headphones on the train, but ask yourself why you're doing it.
If you put on Headphones to keep people from talking to you, you're making the choice to opt out of the human experience.?Make that choice every day on a 45 minute commute and after only a week 7.5 hours where you've opted out of chance encounter, conversation, possibly meeting a new friend or partner. It might not be a bad idea to make the choice to NOT disconnect, actively choosing to engage in the world around us makes a huge difference in how we percieve it, and how it percieves us.
An experiment I'd suggest, if you're the type to default to using your phone as an idle activity:
Next time you're idle and get the urge to pull out your phone, instead look around you and find the most interesting thing you can see. Why is it interesting? Is there anything abnormal about it? Is it's place significant? Take that and note it in your mind, have a conversation with a coworker about it later. Then take note, how did this pointless conversation make me feel?
Being present by choice, especially if done often, will create chances to engage with the World, and its inhabitants.
The other day someone told me life was boring. Put the phone down, make more than the 2 meter cone you can see from around your phone visible, and you'll find the World has a lot of engagement to offer.
I don't any randos talking to me on the train. Commute is worse enough without people trying to "connect with me" during it.
That's kinda what I'm saying though. Those aren't randos! They're other people taking the same commute as you, every day. Make a connection with one and you might start to notice them more. Maybe you have a similar hobby or interest.
Give people a chance to enter your life and they often become more than randos on the train. Maybe you find a commute partner, someone to chat with or bitch to about Jane in Accounting.
I'm not gonna try to convince you, Clearly you saw my point and chose to reject it, that's your choice. I'd urge you to give different thinking a chance though.
They're random people I most likely have never seen before and probably won't ever see again. I live in the city, not a small town where everyone knows each other. The idea of trying to connect with the poor sobs who ended up in the same train as me sounds both crazy and draining as fuck. Not the least bit because where I live, most people cherish that moment to themselves and you'd be fucking that up and bothering them.
If I was commuting with the same four people every day I'd be more likely to talk to them but not in a full ass train with random people.
And why do you think that? Have you paid attention to the people around you? If you and another person get to work at the same time, and live in the same area then odds are you will encounter them again. There might be a million people in your city. But how many of them have the exact same commute as you?
Also so what if you never see them again on the train? What if you end up really liking them, get their number, and stay in contact?
Because I have eyes and easily recognize faces. And a shitload of people have the same work schedule and commute in and out the same time. And it's a big ass train.