Looking at how we close ourselves of in public spaces such as the subway (metro) and retreat into using devices such as Ipod, mobile phone … both intrusive yet solitary, only one person engaged … unless you are “lucky” enough to have a gang of young persons in tracksuits play their favourite tunes at a horrid quality through their mobiles speaker (singular) for all to enjoy and nod accordingly!
“That inward gaze was a self-contained contradiction. It was a way of being alone together. It was a kind of communal separateness, a community of individuals respecting one another’s private space.”
“Like those subway riders of the late 1930s, you’ll find that common focus in any subway car today; many people simultaneously reading the same real estate ads, the same editorials, the same words at the same time. Like their common inward gaze, they have found a communal separateness, alone together.”
– very true on the nexus metro system …. most persons reading the Metro paper on their way to and from work have a moral В system of leaving the paper on your seat or placing it into a newspaper dispenser (for want of better words) has occurred allowing other commuters to read the same paper saving waste and giving an interest for those on the metro. This act contributes to the community of commuters, I wonder how many are aware of their membership?
“With this personal technology, we occupy an efficient, comfortable and entertaining private bubble. We are also more and more mentally removed. Our attendance in physical surroundings becomes more solitary, less shared. We are alone and separate in public.”