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Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

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Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#11

Post by vintageseltzer »

chrisseaton wrote: post #8
brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

This is great. People everywhere I go are incredibly friendly, especially in New York. It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. Not because you want to sell them anything or buy something, but simply because being social is part of being human. One of the things that bothers me about individual automobile travel is how isolating it is. I want to interact with people and experience local…

Ha ha is that how you aspire to feel when you travel in public or how you actually feel? Because it sounds nice but then you try it and you realise many fellow people are unpleasant, annoying or offensive.

It’s obviously a mixed bag (and sometimes dreadful), but IMO it’s a lot more fulfilling to live and travel in the real world among real people than some aseptic Uber-only lifestyle (which many of my friends unfortunately prefer).

Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#12

Post by brndnmtthws »

chrisseaton wrote: post #8
brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

This is great. People everywhere I go are incredibly friendly, especially in New York. It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. Not because you want to sell them anything or buy something, but simply because being social is part of being human. One of the things that bothers me about individual automobile travel is how isolating it is. I want to interact with people and experience local…

Ha ha is that how you aspire to feel when you travel in public or how you actually feel? Because it sounds nice but then you try it and you realise many fellow people are unpleasant, annoying or offensive.

You experience life however you choose to experience it. If you go around with a shitty attitude about things, you'll probably have a shitty experience.

Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#13

Post by donretag »

Many years ago, my friend and I play something we called the N train game. Traveling from Manhattan into Queens, we would guess which stop the white people would get off in Manhattan. Only us "ethnic" white people went into Queens, the rest (American white for lack of a better term) did not.

Now all of that is over. Everyone got pushed into the outer boroughs. There is a hipster bar next door to the building I was born in. Unimaginable twenty years ago. I left my hometown due to cost. Twice the price for a city that is half as fun as it used to be. But this article still shows the amount of diversity in the city.

Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#14

Post by Lambdanaut »

chrisseaton wrote: post #8
brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

This is great. People everywhere I go are incredibly friendly, especially in New York. It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. Not because you want to sell them anything or buy something, but simply because being social is part of being human. One of the things that bothers me about individual automobile travel is how isolating it is. I want to interact with people and experience local…

Ha ha is that how you aspire to feel when you travel in public or how you actually feel? Because it sounds nice but then you try it and you realise many fellow people are unpleasant, annoying or offensive.

> unpleasant, annoying or offensive.

You define pleasantries, annoyances, and offenses, and that attitude of setting yourself above so many others by default without spending the time to understand their unique human stories is going to cut you out of many fullfilling human experiences.

I can only imagine you have a far more difficult life than I, if your world is populated by such annoying characters.

Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#15

Post by gz5 »

The fact we are all on the subway for the same basic purpose subliminally provides a democratizing, unifying and human environment.

The person next to you is different than you but is also the same as you. The person is real - not a media concocted persona based on how the person may look, what groups he may belong to or how the media interprets and communicates her assumed motivations.

Digital is great but there are still 24 hours in the day, so the opportunity cost for many of us, including me, is often human interaction. I for one am trying to increase my time with humans on the R train, and decrease my time with personas on social media.

Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#17

Post by Buttes »

chrisseaton wrote: post #8
brndnmtthws wrote: post #2

This is great. People everywhere I go are incredibly friendly, especially in New York. It's always fun to take a moment, act like a human, and talk to people. Not because you want to sell them anything or buy something, but simply because being social is part of being human. One of the things that bothers me about individual automobile travel is how isolating it is. I want to interact with people and experience local…

Ha ha is that how you aspire to feel when you travel in public or how you actually feel? Because it sounds nice but then you try it and you realise many fellow people are unpleasant, annoying or offensive.

I take the bus everywhere and that's not been my experience at all. Might depend what city you're in.

Re: Who’s Sitting Next to You on the Subway? An R Train in September

#20

Post by jtmarmon »

aninteger wrote: post #18

Did they do this on the weekend? I ride public transit every day of the work week. I see lots of the same people. I don't understand how the answer to the question of "Where are you going?" is not "work" more often.

well it's obviously not in rush hour due to the few people standing, so I'd bet it's the weekend or middle of the day
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