Because I'm lucky enough to live in a town with free local bus service, and because there is a bus line that stops right across the street from my apartment and gets me to the School of Social Work in less than 15 minutes, I ride the bus to and from school everyday. And since I'm working for the school this summer, my bus riding adventures continue.
Recently I was riding the bus home and I happened to look around and notice that every one of the 7 or 8 other passengers on the bus at the time were engaged with some electronic device or another - either listening to music, texting, or talking on the phone. I'm sure my bus in my town is no different from any other bus - or any other public place, for that matter - in any other town.
I'm not one of those people that believes that the spread of technology is destroying society and degrading the moral fiber of humanity. I do believe, however, that it's probably best if you just wait 10 minutes and schedule your next dental appointment in the comfort and privacy of your own home, rather than when you're on a bus with 35 other people and you have to yell to make yourself heard. The other day I actually heard a girl return someone's phone call and THEN refuse to answer any of the person's questions because "she was on a crowded bus." She gets points for discretion, but she should still probably have some kind of legally appointed guardian to make her decisions, just to be on the safe side.
As stupid as that girl was, she's still far more intelligent than 95% of people talking on cell phones in public. Everyone seems to think that when they initiate a conversation on a cell phone, a magical cone of privacy descends around them. This is simply not true. Girl who sits in the back of the bus baby-talking to her long-distance boyfriend every day at 8:30 in the morning? I CAN HEAR YOU. Guy in the airport loudly having a conversation about your dying mother(!)? I CAN HEAR YOU. Girl who calls her grandmother on the bus every couple days, and then repeatedly says, "I can't hear you very well grandma, I'm on a bus"?? Your grandmother may not be able to hear you, BUT I SURE AS HELL CAN.
Anyway, now that I've got all that off my chest, I can tell you about the hilarious thing that happened on the bus this morning. There was some guy in the back of the bus with his ipod turned up so loudly that you could hear the faint sounds of hip hop all the way up in the front where I was sitting. About the same time I noticed this, another guy in the back of the bus (sans headphones) said, "Man, somebody's got his headphones turned up waaaay too loud." Some nearby girls giggled. Emboldened, he added, "You're gonna lose your hearing that way, man... Is that the last song you wanna hear??" The girls laughed some more, and I smiled quietly to myself.
Suddenly the other guy, who is apparently not losing his hearing at all, responded, "Man, I can hear everything you're saying. You asked me if this is the last song I ever want to hear."
At that, the girls sitting nearby laughed even louder, but I'll never know what happened to that guy, because that's when we got to my stop.
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