That it’s completely normal to be looking into your phone or
tablet screen all the time isn’t something I was used to seeing until I moved to Singapore. It took me a while before I started to acknowledge it as
acceptable/ normal behaviour.
However, the discomfort remained. Often triggered by certain kind of occurrences: commuters on trains standing frozen with
their gadgets so as to block the way for others, standing with focus on their phones without realizing the empty
seats right next to them, running into people while walking with the gaze fixed on the screen, etc.
While all of these are annoying, they weren't reason enough for me to write about.
However, an incident in the train this morning compels me to
write.
It was like any other usual day with a train full of people
looking into their own screens until one of the girls sitting across looked up and towards my direction. After a momentary pause, she seemed to seemed to look astonished about the fact that that
I wasn’t doing one of the two things I should be doing in the train – (1) stare
into my devise or (2) doze off.
Has looking up/ around become
abnormal/ inappropriate social behaviour? Have we reached a stage where its wrong not to staring into our own devises in a public place but looking around instead?
It is possible that I misread/ over-read her expressions. However, if my hypothesis is true, then its not a pleasant indicator.
Image from: http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/free-mrt-travel-for-early-birds-3
