Reading on trains

Have you noticed that faraway look when people are reading on trains.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a book or newspaper or magazine or phone. They’re there but they’re not really there.

Rarely do I see anyone absentmindedly looking out the window anymore, or staring off into the middle distance, happy in their own thoughts. Instead they’re interacting with a fellow traveler either in the flesh (if they’re young or family) or electronically. Or they’re entertaining themselves with songs, games, videos, stories. They’re not so much traveling as storying.

Phones, ereaders, pads and the gadget du jour are story delivery systems. We can’t seem to get enough of them. Notice the Kindle reader lost in his own world.

His eyes slightly glazed. He blinks slowly, breathes deeply. He doesn’t see the passengers passing by.

When the train stops at the station, his concentration breaks. He looks up, recognizes his stop.

He gets up and steps out of one world into the next.