OBSERVATION 5 – THE ONE WHERE I’M WOKE
On my way to a friends house my phone was running low on battery. I knew that the train commute was going to take at least an hour, so to conserve battery life I opted to turn my phone off and travel in silence. My destination was on the other side of town, and with no familiar scenery or people to occupy my time I watched the people around me. I was disconnected from the world on this train, or at least that’s how I felt at the time. With no indication of time, no access to Facebook, and no music to listen to, I was finally cut off from my phone like I had never been since receiving this iPhone 3 years ago. Looking back I know I was being paranoid about my dependency on the device. I was worried I would miss an important call, or text, or meme. But after the initial shock of having my ears clear of headphones I began listening to the things around me. I listened to small quiet conversations between people I don’t know, I could hear the train engine stop and start, and bizarrely enough I could hear the music of other people around me, despite the earphones they were using. There was a man in particular next to me who played his Led Zeplin particularly louder than is safe for his ears, but the familiar sound of music blasted anywhere was comforting. And as I watched the people around me for something interesting to write about, I realised it was a perfect time for me to observe. I also realised that I could have been doing this way more often than just on train rides, but that my connection to my phone always distracted me in a way that made me less aware of the world around me. Disconnecting myself got me to wake up and actually fully dedicate my attention to this exercise, to this experience of noticing things around me which for the last two years I have been distancing myself from slowly. My phone, which is suppose to be a tool to connect me with the bigger world ended up constricting my freedom of consuming the real world, and actually disconnected me more with the world I was currently standing in.