I know I haven't had the chance to talk about people who drive - the commuters who use their vessels of steel to protect themselves from the outside world & plough on with their lives in the sure knowledge that nothing can touch them (apart from a truck). That sort of discussion doesn't belong in the blog on public transport.
However, what I have noticed is that some people don't need their compensatory machinery to feel as if they're in their own little world. A smaller device - the mobile phone - seems to do the same job quite nicely.
I'm sure you've seen people oblivious to their surrounds walking down the street, sometimes staring at the screen as they text away, walking into people, poles, etc. You may have even heard the odd expletive as someone spends so much time on the phone that they forget where they intended to get off the train.
Worse than this is when people talk on the phone as if they were in their bedroom.
I'm not talking about the odd salacious snippet, or even something that you try hard to remember so that you can send it in to MX for other people to enjoy, but whole conversations that you either wish you hadn't heard, or else think should never be public.
My example came this morning when a young lady several seats in front of me (facing me due to the seat configuration) was explaining to someone - quite possibly her credit card company - how her newly acquired card had been stolen & the thief had left a trail of happy consuming through half of Sydney in a forty-eight hour spending spree. She detailed how she couldn't work out how the card escaped her purse without help, how the police had shown little interest, where the purchases were made, etc.
As sad as the story was, it got me thinking - the first thing that a credit card company usually does on such a phone call is to ask for all sorts of identification - card number, name, address, password, etc. Anyone sitting nearby could down take such details quite easily - for that matter, you could record the conversation if you were prepared enough. It boggles the mind what this technology - the mobile device that almost everyone carries - can do in addition to what those around you are using it for: making phone calls.
So, this young lady was telling her story, effectively, to the whole carriage as well as the person in the call centre. I know I can be trusted, but I'm not so sure that all of those present & feigning sleep or disinterest are the fine upstanding commuter citizens that one would normally give one's personal details to ... unless, of course, they were on the other end of the connection, & you couldn't see their face.
