Relationships in the trains

The vacant eyes that I see in those that I see on the trains are symptomatic of those that have been ravaged by technology. People are more interested in looking into the phones and tablets then they are interested in the person next to you.

We are set apart from the work we produce and insofar that produces an existence in and above the things and tasks that we perform. A person absorbed in the work, would think of ways and methods of solving problems. Staring at a phone while on the way back home from work would produces an experience which is tantamount to having an email being flooded while not doing anything about it.
If one does not feel a sense of anxiety while being flooded by work, this would produce an experience which produces a sense of vacant-ness. This is often alleviate by focusing and getting mind off the work piling up.

The empty eyes on the street which produces such an out-of-body experience leads to a numbing of all your senses. A dumbing down of your mind and denigration to the mundane. We then produce a factory load of things which are similar but produces almost no experience whatsoever.

When one stares on the phone and into soap opera while on the train, we are looking for things to take the mind off everything. The people rushing by, the lack of manners, the work we are supposed but we do not want to do, the person that stands too close to us but we really cannot do anything about. It ignores the social surrounding and focuses our mind which requires absolutely no effort whatsoever.

This means two fold 1)  we are tired 2) we really don't care what is happening but we really don't want to tell you that.

Social norms are observed and practiced because there is a common language. Enforcing and reinforcing is reciprocal.  This means that in a compact situation like this, we often read this as nothing more than an anonymous being which happens to be on the same train as us.

This means even if we do not know this person, we do not think it is rude because he/she is ignoring us. This is a reflection of simply one based on needs then mutually beneficial one.

The relationship hence in this particular situation is one which the most general of all laws and rules is applicable and not particularistic. This means that, a stranger must be observed with all forms of rules and laws which is the most general otherwise, reciprocal relationship must be formed.

Not observing general but particularistic one leads to a form of fetishism. This means that an relationship with a stranger is equivalent to flirting with a stranger. Any relationship with a stranger is a flirtatious one and never a reciprocal one.

Hence looking into the smartphone vacantly with no inkling of forming social relationships is symptomatic of modern context where we are packed with strangers in close quarters and ravaged with work we are incapable of coping. This means that technology becomes a crutch by we lived to form a meaningful relationship with person sitting next to you.

We live our lives meaninglessly without ever realizing that we never needed it.