I remember few months ago reading an article about this guy who got shot inside a metro car and nobody notice the fact that the shooter entered the wagon holding the gun, a pretty uncommon thing to see happening. You can wonder what were the passengers doing? They were playing with their phones and tech stuff. How many times have you been at a bar or restaurant and most of the table was playing with their phones? What is so important that cannot wait a few minutes or hours to be checked? Is it really relevant to like someone else’s new post about something we probably do not even care about? It took me a while to enter the smart phone era and one of the main reasons was seeing my friends not enjoying the real time together because they were so focus in their virtual life or what is going to happen next. I am not a saint here, I have checked my phone countless times while spending time with my friends but every time I think about I regret.
Yesterday I met this lady at a bar and she was telling me what she had just seen: an old man with a walker almost felt because people were running in the escalator trying to get the next metro. I like to believe if people had seen that man they would not have pushed him. More and more people (me included) walk around playing with their phones, reading something in their tables or listening something in their new music device (which probably has a name that I do not even know) and completely ignoring what is happening in their surroundings. Countless times I’ve seen people that could have used an extra hand and no one notice, someone that dropped something or need a support carrying something over the stairs. How many invisible people are around us?
I felt that invisibility so many times while campaigning in Brazil: you would try to share a material with people and so many of them would not even bother to look at you even to say not. You do not have to find your new best friend during a bus ride or you do not have to take every material people want to handle it to you, but acknowledge and respect other people existence in a common space is so important. Nurture better relationships with our fellows citizens feels really good, getting a random smile or a help shows me that sense of community, a sense we are all connect. I hope to be able to cultivate this more and more and would recommend you to try as well.
*If you would like to practice your Portuguese here is an article about a bus route where there is a specific seat for those willing and/or open to conversations… Not sure whether this is an awesome idea or depressing because people are not talking to each other anymore. I remember so many conversations I’ve had with people I met on buses. http://qsocial.com.br/campanha-estimula-bate-papo-onibus/