Is that not already how it is? Each time I've been the new kid at school or new guy at the office, it seems there's nothing for people to talk about if you don't know all the TV shows or all the memes or all the movies or music or the celeb gossip or latest sports happenings or news or video game releases or this weeks anime developments or whatever it is each person chooses to fill their thought process with other than the world immediately around them.
It seems it's probably comforting to be consumed by external things over which you have no power, instead of being sober about closer things - some of which you could influence given significant effort, some of which you are powerless to influence with any amount of effort.
The most popular TV shows are of things with similar content or at least content quality.
What made you think that the internet or mobile would be any different? :)
I don't ask that everyone read books, god forbid, but it would be nice if people weren't using their phones to put themselves into hibernate nearly all of the time. The phrasing of your question implies that the train is an isolated circumstance, but in my experience I see people out on dates with both people on their phones ignoring each other, and even whole groups of friends out together, all on their phones.
I just wish people would engage more.
I was interested to find that in India, things are named in a way that brings out little points like this. For example, Indians call the little snacks you can buy on trains (like roasted, spiced peanuts) 'timepass.' A way to put the mind on hibernate and pass the time until the next desirable experience, presumably.
Maybe that's just what people want most of the time? The world can't always be the way we'd like it to be, and we're just passing time in a way that takes minimal effort. To get to the next desirable experience.
For most, the phone is where they go when a situation becomes uncomfortable or unfavourable. It's easier to do that than meet and correct the situation (if it's correctable at all). Or learn to see beauty in the mundane.
We need to build a culture of reasoned, purposeful existence, rather than one that is constantly buckling to the whims and fancies of our immediate demands.
> I just wish people would engage more.
Some people loose themselves in their phone, others loose themselves into a book.
They're both the same.
If you do, then you must agree that you could replace every moment in your life that had been spent reading a book with you perusing your phone, and you would be the same person today.
Do you believe that to be true?
I just wish people didn't ignore the world all the time in favor of carrying their computer (phone) around with them and staring into it all day long.
What amuses me is when I see someone reading an actual physical book. It is so rare, and it is almost every time someone trying to be hip.
Reading a book is an almost entirely introverted activity. How is the motivation to be hip going to be enough to sustain one's attention across the length of an entire book?
15 Million Merits isn't about the future.
It scares me, to be honest. I wonder where this tendency in people will lead in the very long run, particularly when you consider the ideas suggested by companies like Neuralink. It brings Black Mirror to mind.
Will people permanently have an inexhaustible feed of vapid garbage playing in their mind while they ignore most of everything going on in reality, in their actual real life?
However, this is unrelated to the original point. Just a side thought.