So those of you who live in a city or take public transportation anywhere are probably already familiar with something I like to call Transit Face.
You know, the way you slack your face and unfocus your eyes while on the train, bus or whatever.
Everyone does it.
The thing is, most of the time the Face is a lie - although you look like you're spacing out you're actually more present, paying attention to people on the train for one reason or another.
I wonder why we all do this. Is it a defense mechanism? How do others feel towards those loud and/or annoying people who violate the Transit Face Social Contract? Are they perturbed by them because they're annoying or because they aren't spaced out like they're supposed to be?
Do the people who design these transit vehicles think about the social implications of the arrangement of space? Are we supposed to interact, but somehow have subverted their intentions?
Anyways, that's all for now. I need to write about work and stuff, but that deserves another post.
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Here's another tip for transit face - use window reflections to observe a broader area. Sadly, society has taught us that transit face gives a feeling of safety in a world with so many dangers. Equally sad, is the way we miss out on basic human interaction. I love the verse Roger Daultry sings in "Dirty Jobs", "I am man who drives a local bus
ReplyDeleteI take miners to work, but the pits all closed today.
It's easy to see that you are one of us.
Ain't it funny how we all seem to look the same?"
Read somewhere that one of the big motivators for the surgical mask fad in Japan (besides scary scary germs)was that it helped mask facial expressions...
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