I spotted her from the top of the hill. For over 300 metres, she never lifted her gaze from her screen. Her long auburn hair, her green pleated dress and her headphones’ cable swayed with each step. Everybody was scurrying to avoid her meandering course. Well, everybody except me. I never do. She didn’t even look up when she suddenly realized she’d have to jump sideways to avoid a head-on collision. They never do.
Some mornings, more than fifteen minutes can pass before i see someone’s eyes1. Toddlers in their prams and their nannies behind them, self-important people wearing cheap polyester suits, middle-aged men walking their tiny dogs, grannies using their shopping trolleys as dignified walking sticks… most of them are glued to their phones. Cyclists barely look up now that they can blindly follow bike paths and motorists can’t sit at a red light for more than fifteen seconds before being driven by an irresistible urge to check their screens. It’s a miracle that there aren’t more accidents.
Why do people look at their smartphones while walking, cycling and driving? Because they’re sociopaths, of course. Their fear of missing out, their boredom and their egotism trump ‘the rights and well-being of others’. You must get out of their way because you should know that what they’re doing is absolutely paramount. You can’t even warn them now that they’re wearing noise-cancelling headphones.
But you know what? I don’t think it’s a disease of their own making; i think it’s a reaction to the ugliness of today’s built environment. What’s on their screens – a WhatsApp conversation with a group of friends, a Spotify playlist featuring their favourite artist, a YouTube short from the other side of the planet, a Canva document they’re revising for the umpteenth time – actually is more interesting than the world around them. Because our world is u-g-l-y. Why would you look at grey-clothed people walking on the grey pavement and listen to grey cars roaring on the grey road when you could be looking at and listening to something else?
I don’t want to absolve them of all blame, because they’re still a nuisance, but i don’t want to miss the wood for the trees. The more beautiful a place is, the less people look at their screens, the friendlier and safer a space feels, the more people engage with each other. But when a guy could mistake a glance for an invitation, when a driver could take you out if he so chooses, when everything and everyone seem like a threat, you get your guard up. People look at their smartphones while walking because they’re afraid.
That being said, groups of people walking side by side on a narrow pavement can still go fuck themselves. Elbows out and locked, i’m coming right through you whether you want it or not.
- I avoided looking people in the eyes for most of life, but by a weird turn of events, i now crave it. ↩︎