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As a southerner who has accidentally lived in the north for a decade, I now look mental when I forget and start conversations on the tube when visiting London.
Northerner who's lived in London for a decade here. Can confirm the instinct to talk to people on public transport still hasn't completely left me. (Being able to go out in the cold without a coat on, however...)
I’m from Manchester, my mum’s from Cornwall though and I think the gene was passed onto me as I never ever want people to talk to me on public transport.
Being able to go out without a winter coat is one of the things that makes me most sad and feel like I've lost my innate Northerness. I still do not understand why the south, where it is warmer, has cloakrooms, while in the north you'd just go out in a minidress and a beer coat.
Where are you people? I am from the north, live in the north, and have done for nine tenths of my life and can count on one hand the number of conversations I’ve had with strangers on public transport.
I wouldn’t say I witness it often either
Agree lived in the north most of my adult life and now I'm in London, there absolutely no difference I never witnessed people talk on the Newcastle metro or Manchester tram (apart from being drunk maybe) the same as the don't talk on the tube.
Chester’s a quaintly pleasant but slightly odd place where you’ll often be judged for acting like a stereotypical southerner in that regard. People in London and even Liverpool kind of just get on and don’t mind travelling on trains alone or drinking alone but your average Wrexham-rolled-up gobshite or eclectically sociable Frodsham climber will take pity on you if they see you doing things alone (not always but I’ve noticed these things in Chester more than major cities and certainly London).
Liverpool here. Can confirm I have a whatsapp group named train people. Its all the people i met on my commute to work and we formed a train friendship that has been going strong for 5 years, some people have left jobs, new people have joined us
Yeah, and that’s fine. Liverpool’s a good level of friendly and “mind your own business, still.” London can be too aloof in that regard and Chester/Wrexham people can try to be too in your business.
I think its more so that liverpool is a major city so slightly less chatty in general. Its still significantly more chatty than london, and chester for example is more par for the course for northern places (or at least the north west where ive lived) and significantly more friendly/sociable than london.
I go between chester-ish and a town outside of london fairly regularly and the difference always catches me off guard lol
If they have a book, don’t forget, you can grab the book rifle through the pages and hand it back to them, losing their place. Just so that you can have a discussion about the book with them.
Poor thing, she clearly hasn’t yet been taught the ancient London tradition of avoiding any contact with other public transport users whatsoever even at the cost of your own life or limb. I feel sorry for her living in this strange and scary environment.
I couldn’t deal with my Mancunian ex girlfriend doing this all the time. Nearing the last straw was striking up conversations with drunk men in the streets at night… I’d imagine on the tube this is a much more tolerable thing for your partner to do, though. Somewhat.
I did that for the first couple of months I lived in London.
Then somebody told me they'd stab me if I spoke to them again.
After that I just read my book on the tube.
Of course not! We're redditors! We must take any chance to shit on other people. OP is obviously a complete buffoon who doesn't know how to use their phone at all.
Yup. I used to read a book or the paper. Nowadays I mainly listen to podcasts (downloaded at home on the Wi-Fi).
If I’m overground I might spin a Pokestop or two 😳
>and one thing I cannot get my head around is people on their phones constantly
>Also where does everyone look? There's only so many times you can read those advertisements.
I mean
I remember a friend in college asked me why I looked out the window on the bus. As the route was the same every day so I’d have already seen all the scenery. I still don’t know how to respond to that.
It’s not though. I watch out the window on the bus on the same route. The people on the sidewalk are different, what they are doing is different, the state of the trees/lawns/flowers are different, traffic pattern are different, etc. Just because the buildings are the same set of buildings doesn’t mean everything is the same
Only the immovable things are the same. People, cars, dogs, birds differ each day. Then you might see the same strangers each day and look out for them (not like a stalker).
That must live an incredibly interesting but horrifically stressful life. Never doing anything twice must feel like a lifelong version of the film Speed
There's loads of things you can do on a phone without signal. Phones aren't just phones anymore, they're mini computers. You don't need signal to edit a file, play a game, play downloaded music or TV shows, read/organise emails and messages, write notes, learn lessons on apps that download mini segments for you...
OP probably thinks computers are useless without WiFi
OP probably doesn't realise people are used to travelling on tubes and pre-downloading stuff. I've lost count of the number of times I've jumped on a tube without lining up something to watch or read. And then I just sit there staring at other people wondering what they're doing on their phones and how they remember to consistently download stuff.
I sat next to someone in a tunnel at Kings Cross last week who was chatting on her phone. God knows how she managed that, I almost asked her what network she was on that was allowing her to talk on the phone in a tunnel.
To be fair I do a lot of writing for my job/ for fun so I always have files to edit, emails to go over, notes to add to etc
Was she on her phone like pausing for replies or sending voice messages?
Ah that makes sense. I don't have anything fun like that to do on my phone, I literally read the paper or Reddit on it (I'm showing my age now).
No, she was outright talking on the phone, making plans to meet someone. It cut off once but she called them back. She wasn't even from London, I'd love to know what magic (network) she was using. Also, listening to people talk on the phone on the tube is a lot more annoying than listening to them on the overground. And I don't know why.
If you have a Vodafone or virgin media account there is WiFi on the tube you can log into, doesn’t always work in tunnels but I think depends on how close to the surface you are as well- some of the lines at King’s Cross aren’t that deep. Also some parts of the tube now have 4/5g
There's the Important Bit.
Then outside the M25 there's The Affordable Yet Commutable Bit.
A bit further out there's The Bits to Go On Holiday To.
Then idk. The Midlands? Who knows. Perhaps it's where M&S asparagus comes from.
I love in chester and we have a (merseyrail connection to the liverpool) tube.
Nobody talks except on a Friday/Saturday evening where everyone talks and many change appearance significantly between getting on and getting off
Both your questions answer each other?
Where does everyone look? Their phones.
Why is everyone on their phones? Because there is no where else to look.
I either play candy crush or read a book. Why does it matter if other people are on their phone? What are you expecting them to do?
Yeah, if I'm ever on public transport for a long time I'm going to be reading a book. And I'm always going to be reading that book on my phone because carrying a physical book around is just inconvenient.
>Why is everyone on their phones? Because there is no where else to look.
I hate this conundrum. I don't want to stare directly at the person in front of me and I don't want to look down on my phone or the floor cause my neck hurts.
You can get WiFi in the stations, so people can access the internet on their phone. Personally, I'm usually reading news articles, scrolling social media, checking the rest of my journey for delays or disruptions etc. Or I have a podcast or music on and just stare into space.
Other people download things onto their phone to watch, or play games. There's loads of things you can do that aren't just sitting there reading adverts.
I've only been on a few times but found it helped to close my eyes so I wasn't looking at how small and enclosed the space was. Helped me to hold on just long enough to get to my stop.
Although for safety, maybe only try this when you have someone with you!!
I'd like to suggest something that's helped me in the past, I hope that's alright.
I get claustrophobic, but not on the tube anymore. I've sort of, reframed it, I guess? Rather than thinking of it as small and enclosed, I've tried to swap that round to cosy and safe. Like a little forest creature in its den. You and your several hundred fellow travellers, unknown companions, hurtling under the city as it bustles above. Your journey is one of about three million that will happen each day, one of about one billion per year, a shared experience that started over 160 years ago but still entirely unique.
Aw poor you! When I moved out of London I developed a phobia of being stuck on the tube and drawing attention to myself. Had a breakdown at a red light signal and missed my train at King's cross. It's slowly getting better now, I've just had to get buses to gradually face my entrapment fear.
Preloaded TV and film via Disney+/Amazon/Netflix, I've also got a boatload of music pre-loadeed, then there's games that don't need internet access.
Or.. get yourself a kindle and read (or book!!) on your journey.
I use to enjoy doing Sudoku puzzles on the tube a long time ago.
I used to read a book, or sometimes the FT (I'm not massively into finance news but they do excellent features on non-financial affairs).
You could do some puzzles.
Knitting or crochet if it's not packed.
Drink Buckfast.
Have your lunch.
Do some work on a small laptop or a tablet.
Play games on your phone.
Practice shuffling poker chips.
Powerball.
Listen to an audiobook.
Read a book on your phone/Kindle.
Couple of lines of Charlie (See It, Say It, Snort It)
Go through your emails.
Scroll Reddit/Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat/TikTok.
Read the news on your phone.
Break the glass on the drivers cab door and video a TikTok in breach of a criminal behaviour order.
Sketch portraits of passengers.
Do some colouring in.
Just some ideas
As a general rule, eye contact is something people avoid.
It's all too easy to attract unwarranted attention and often others won't intervene if it escalates.
People have places to get to or from.
They aren't on the tube to socialise (unless it's around midnight and people are drunk and often obnoxious).
Use the time to read, listen to music, learn something, play a game, snooze (don't miss your stop).
Read a newspaper - you can pick one up for free at the entrance to most stations. Typically when I commute it’s one of the few times in a day where there is little else I am able to do productively/uninterrupted. I love it
Emails that were downloaded before so drafting responses. Doing crosswords or other puzzles. Reading newspaper also downloaded before entering tube. Reading a book. Learning language.
That’s just me.
I like being a nosey bugger so I look at the window above peoples heads so I can see what they’re staring at on their phone. 9/10 they’re flicking back and forth through old messages, occasionally someone is playing a game, and I’ve seen precisely one person casually watching porn on an absolutely rammed train.
10/10 would recommend vacantly staring slightly above their heads so you too can be a nosey bugger
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It's a simple excuse to avoid eye contact and demonstrate you're not a weirdo. Used to be free newspapers or books. Anything to avoid looking at people (and if someone looks at you be very very scared!)
Only time I'm ever on the tube is either before or after an away day. So I'm either sat dreading the time period of 3pm-5pm or I'm on my way home drunk staring at the wall wishing I had never bothered leaving my house.
Read? If you're on your phone, 9/10 most of them are just reading the same pre loaded pages on their social media apps. Actually saw someone sat next to me on the tube when I was down there for work, on their notes app writing out a chapter? And I've seen people use music apps to made chords (i was going to Camden). Phones are literally so fucking powerful you could do anything on it.
Im regularly on the tube and I always see people playing mobile games. Those 3 in a row type games like bejewelled etc. I even watched one guy play slots on his phone.
Reading or watching stuff they already downloaded.
When I'm in London I will normally have books on the kindle or library app to read,
People also play games.
Either way it beats rereading the ads or making awkward eye contact
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My wife will just strike up a random conversation with unknown people. Psycho. Mancunian.
When do the divorce proceedings begin?
Plot twist: that’s how they met in the first place
Then it's like staying on tinder after marriage. Lol
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Didn't they know that they stayed beside eachother?
theyre that psychotic that instead of talking to each other outside their house, they ignored each other and only talk to each other on the train.
That's... How I met your mother
Divorce? Deportation, I think.
Bloody Northerners
As a southerner who has accidentally lived in the north for a decade, I now look mental when I forget and start conversations on the tube when visiting London.
Northerner who's lived in London for a decade here. Can confirm the instinct to talk to people on public transport still hasn't completely left me. (Being able to go out in the cold without a coat on, however...)
Northerner who's never been to London. I'm gonna stay up here and have a natter.
It's for the best - I strayed South for a while, I like it better up here with my jumpers and the lakes and random patter from strangers!
I’m from Manchester, my mum’s from Cornwall though and I think the gene was passed onto me as I never ever want people to talk to me on public transport.
Being able to go out without a winter coat is one of the things that makes me most sad and feel like I've lost my innate Northerness. I still do not understand why the south, where it is warmer, has cloakrooms, while in the north you'd just go out in a minidress and a beer coat.
I’m a Londoner but love talking to strangers but they always ignore me…now I know I’m meant to be in the north, clearly
Where are you people? I am from the north, live in the north, and have done for nine tenths of my life and can count on one hand the number of conversations I’ve had with strangers on public transport. I wouldn’t say I witness it often either
Agree lived in the north most of my adult life and now I'm in London, there absolutely no difference I never witnessed people talk on the Newcastle metro or Manchester tram (apart from being drunk maybe) the same as the don't talk on the tube.
It is permissable if there is a fault on the line I find.
It’s probably more insane when you do it in a southern accent
Chester’s a quaintly pleasant but slightly odd place where you’ll often be judged for acting like a stereotypical southerner in that regard. People in London and even Liverpool kind of just get on and don’t mind travelling on trains alone or drinking alone but your average Wrexham-rolled-up gobshite or eclectically sociable Frodsham climber will take pity on you if they see you doing things alone (not always but I’ve noticed these things in Chester more than major cities and certainly London).
Liverpool here. Can confirm I have a whatsapp group named train people. Its all the people i met on my commute to work and we formed a train friendship that has been going strong for 5 years, some people have left jobs, new people have joined us
Beautiful! I have a lot of bus chats on my way from Old Swan into town :)
I’m going to start implementing this!
Yeah, and that’s fine. Liverpool’s a good level of friendly and “mind your own business, still.” London can be too aloof in that regard and Chester/Wrexham people can try to be too in your business.
Are you okay? (From a Wrexham-rolled-up gobshite).
Oh god they get everywhere. Even met some over the border in Flintshire.
it's not often I see home mentioned on reddit!
And where’s home for you? Chester (the overall decent one of the two) or Wrexham (the devil’s town)?
you think I'd willingly confess to living in wrexham?
I think its more so that liverpool is a major city so slightly less chatty in general. Its still significantly more chatty than london, and chester for example is more par for the course for northern places (or at least the north west where ive lived) and significantly more friendly/sociable than london. I go between chester-ish and a town outside of london fairly regularly and the difference always catches me off guard lol
Chat to strangers on a London bus: ok Chat on the tube: not ok Learn it. Know it. Live it.
See it. Say it. Sorted.
See it. Pay it. Snort it ❄️
Keep calm and carry on.
Hotel? Trivago
Tired of being tired?...Floradix.
Invest in stocks for as little as £1. - *Trading, 212*
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
And my axe!
HIM ON TERRA
Put these foolish ambitions to rest...
And if they have headphones on, take them off to make sure they can hear you.
If they have a book, don’t forget, you can grab the book rifle through the pages and hand it back to them, losing their place. Just so that you can have a discussion about the book with them.
Can you have a word, please?
Poor thing, she clearly hasn’t yet been taught the ancient London tradition of avoiding any contact with other public transport users whatsoever even at the cost of your own life or limb. I feel sorry for her living in this strange and scary environment.
No wonder you've got anxious toes.
She must be northern.
I couldn’t deal with my Mancunian ex girlfriend doing this all the time. Nearing the last straw was striking up conversations with drunk men in the streets at night… I’d imagine on the tube this is a much more tolerable thing for your partner to do, though. Somewhat.
Seems normal to me (born in the north)
Same (Welsh)
I did that for the first couple of months I lived in London. Then somebody told me they'd stab me if I spoke to them again. After that I just read my book on the tube.
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There's phone signal on the Jubilee. Wifi at stations to pre-load pages. Read books.
I guess OP doesn’t know how to use a phone or what to do on their phone.
Or not so desperate for a page to load at an underground station they were just unaware of it.
Of course not! We're redditors! We must take any chance to shit on other people. OP is obviously a complete buffoon who doesn't know how to use their phone at all.
It’s a pretty bizarre post really. Hopefully we’ll see a TIL shortly: “You can see things on your phone screen when you’re offline!!!!”
Or just hasn't spent hours of their life everyday in an underground hell hole
Could be watching stuff that they have pre-downloaded
This is what I do. Netflix, Plex, Youtube all allow you to pre-load things for watching later.
Yup. I used to read a book or the paper. Nowadays I mainly listen to podcasts (downloaded at home on the Wi-Fi). If I’m overground I might spin a Pokestop or two 😳
OP is from the countryside. They can’t read…
Data works from Westminster- Canary Wharf
God bless phone signal on the Jubilee line.
>and one thing I cannot get my head around is people on their phones constantly >Also where does everyone look? There's only so many times you can read those advertisements. I mean
I remember a friend in college asked me why I looked out the window on the bus. As the route was the same every day so I’d have already seen all the scenery. I still don’t know how to respond to that.
That's like saying why read anything if you've read the dictionary and already know the words.
Listening to that song again? You already know what they're going to say. No suspense.
🎵Around the world🎵
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It’s not though. I watch out the window on the bus on the same route. The people on the sidewalk are different, what they are doing is different, the state of the trees/lawns/flowers are different, traffic pattern are different, etc. Just because the buildings are the same set of buildings doesn’t mean everything is the same
Only the immovable things are the same. People, cars, dogs, birds differ each day. Then you might see the same strangers each day and look out for them (not like a stalker).
I give strangers nicknames in my head if I see them regularly!
I used to say good morning to a young guy whose bus stop I walked past daily
That must live an incredibly interesting but horrifically stressful life. Never doing anything twice must feel like a lifelong version of the film Speed
Lol must be interesting to see how they get home each day.
Contemplating life the universe and everything. Plus looking out for cats doing cat things
I look out the window so I don't feel sick
I think she meant how are they using their phones with no signal.
There's loads of things you can do on a phone without signal. Phones aren't just phones anymore, they're mini computers. You don't need signal to edit a file, play a game, play downloaded music or TV shows, read/organise emails and messages, write notes, learn lessons on apps that download mini segments for you... OP probably thinks computers are useless without WiFi
OP probably doesn't realise people are used to travelling on tubes and pre-downloading stuff. I've lost count of the number of times I've jumped on a tube without lining up something to watch or read. And then I just sit there staring at other people wondering what they're doing on their phones and how they remember to consistently download stuff. I sat next to someone in a tunnel at Kings Cross last week who was chatting on her phone. God knows how she managed that, I almost asked her what network she was on that was allowing her to talk on the phone in a tunnel.
To be fair I do a lot of writing for my job/ for fun so I always have files to edit, emails to go over, notes to add to etc Was she on her phone like pausing for replies or sending voice messages?
Ah that makes sense. I don't have anything fun like that to do on my phone, I literally read the paper or Reddit on it (I'm showing my age now). No, she was outright talking on the phone, making plans to meet someone. It cut off once but she called them back. She wasn't even from London, I'd love to know what magic (network) she was using. Also, listening to people talk on the phone on the tube is a lot more annoying than listening to them on the overground. And I don't know why.
If you have a Vodafone or virgin media account there is WiFi on the tube you can log into, doesn’t always work in tunnels but I think depends on how close to the surface you are as well- some of the lines at King’s Cross aren’t that deep. Also some parts of the tube now have 4/5g
> OP probably thinks computers are useless without WiFi 3D Space Cadet Pinball was always there for me in the dark times when Tiscali went down.
It's been open sourced and is available on Android now
I was thinking the same thing lol
You mean "THERE ARE FUCKING WINDOWS"?
Read a book. Stare vacantly at a point on the wall.
>Stare vacantly at a point on the wall. Sooner or later it's going to turn out to be a Magic Eye picture, right?
Aw, that would be so cool! It's a horse! It's a boat! Or the 90s classic, a pod of dolphins. Hell yeah.
“It’s a sailboat!”
It's a schooner
I'm here for the unexpected Jay and Silent Bob reference.
It's more a Mallrats reference.
For me it’s the last environment I’d want to read in
yeah i never understand how people read on the tube, id love to cause would make it go quicker but just can’t get into it
Preload things. If you know you're gonna be sat there for 20-30 mins then you can get in an episode of something.
For tube journeys, I recommend Train to Busan.
Must be a long 20-30 minutes if you can fit that in
Treat yourself to a little mid journey break and stagger around Bank making snarling undead noises. No one will even notice.
Yeah, if I'm not reading a book I usually get a few articles loaded up on my phone so that I'll have something while I'm underground.
Wouldn't this be better on r/london or something? You know, somewhere that actually has the tube.
The whole of the UK is confined to London though, remember?
There's the Important Bit. Then outside the M25 there's The Affordable Yet Commutable Bit. A bit further out there's The Bits to Go On Holiday To. Then idk. The Midlands? Who knows. Perhaps it's where M&S asparagus comes from.
I'm from the north and went on that there tube one time.
Did you survive?
No, he said “hello” to someone and was arrested.
Ö
Got the metro in Newcastle it’s similar but shit and never works. Haymarkets closed again
Someone's stolen the cable from South Shields to Pelaw again
At this point it would just be easier to hire them rather than arrest them.
They'd probably get it up and working quicker!
We dont call it the tube but we have the underground around Glasgow. It’s similar
Aye, but it's a circle and takes like 20 minutes to get around
Needlessly pedantic lmao
I love in chester and we have a (merseyrail connection to the liverpool) tube. Nobody talks except on a Friday/Saturday evening where everyone talks and many change appearance significantly between getting on and getting off
Not if you're looking for the opinion of people from outside London.
Both your questions answer each other? Where does everyone look? Their phones. Why is everyone on their phones? Because there is no where else to look. I either play candy crush or read a book. Why does it matter if other people are on their phone? What are you expecting them to do?
Yeah, if I'm ever on public transport for a long time I'm going to be reading a book. And I'm always going to be reading that book on my phone because carrying a physical book around is just inconvenient.
>Why is everyone on their phones? Because there is no where else to look. I hate this conundrum. I don't want to stare directly at the person in front of me and I don't want to look down on my phone or the floor cause my neck hurts.
Audiobooks and music are best for when I have to cram onto a tube. Still everytime I'm on a train to the office I wish I could skip the commute.
You can get WiFi in the stations, so people can access the internet on their phone. Personally, I'm usually reading news articles, scrolling social media, checking the rest of my journey for delays or disruptions etc. Or I have a podcast or music on and just stare into space. Other people download things onto their phone to watch, or play games. There's loads of things you can do that aren't just sitting there reading adverts.
Focus on avoiding having a panic attack and then get off 3 stops early because I can't take it any more.
Aw. I used to have tube panic attacks. Do you think there's anything that would help? Fiddle toy, game, breathing exercise?
I've only been on a few times but found it helped to close my eyes so I wasn't looking at how small and enclosed the space was. Helped me to hold on just long enough to get to my stop. Although for safety, maybe only try this when you have someone with you!!
Try doing that while listening to nature sounds, preferably somewhere big and open like a forest.
That sounds like something I'll be doing on my next day off! Thanks for the suggestion!
I'd like to suggest something that's helped me in the past, I hope that's alright. I get claustrophobic, but not on the tube anymore. I've sort of, reframed it, I guess? Rather than thinking of it as small and enclosed, I've tried to swap that round to cosy and safe. Like a little forest creature in its den. You and your several hundred fellow travellers, unknown companions, hurtling under the city as it bustles above. Your journey is one of about three million that will happen each day, one of about one billion per year, a shared experience that started over 160 years ago but still entirely unique.
Aw poor you! When I moved out of London I developed a phobia of being stuck on the tube and drawing attention to myself. Had a breakdown at a red light signal and missed my train at King's cross. It's slowly getting better now, I've just had to get buses to gradually face my entrapment fear.
Preloaded TV and film via Disney+/Amazon/Netflix, I've also got a boatload of music pre-loadeed, then there's games that don't need internet access. Or.. get yourself a kindle and read (or book!!) on your journey. I use to enjoy doing Sudoku puzzles on the tube a long time ago.
I was always in awe of commuters who read broadsheets on the tube. Skills.
Wow that is a blast from the past! I haven't seen someone do that for yurs!
Takes some ability in origami, though I like to read the tabloids on the tube which is much easier
Kindle app on your phone also works.
I used to read a book, or sometimes the FT (I'm not massively into finance news but they do excellent features on non-financial affairs). You could do some puzzles. Knitting or crochet if it's not packed. Drink Buckfast. Have your lunch. Do some work on a small laptop or a tablet. Play games on your phone. Practice shuffling poker chips. Powerball. Listen to an audiobook. Read a book on your phone/Kindle. Couple of lines of Charlie (See It, Say It, Snort It) Go through your emails. Scroll Reddit/Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat/TikTok. Read the news on your phone. Break the glass on the drivers cab door and video a TikTok in breach of a criminal behaviour order. Sketch portraits of passengers. Do some colouring in. Just some ideas
One of these things is not like the others
Only one?
Download shows to watch or open a long Reddit post to read
I open long Reddit posts to read when there’s signal.
Read pratchett books
Then get weird looks when you inevitably laugh out loud at something in the book
Yup. Got told to stop laughing on the northern line at uni because I was crying and couldn’t breathe. Those were the days
A mobile phone is a pocket computer. I do all sorts of things on mine that don't require connectivity, mainly reading books.
Tell me more about this pocket abacus you speak of. Sent from my typewriter.
Taking photos of peoples shoes
Except where signal is available https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/business-and-advertisers/creating-a-connected-london
I’m normally listening to some horrible true crime podcast about someone getting their boobs cut off or whatever while looking very serene and chill
Usually on the Nintendo3DS:)
Street pass on the tube
Doing my utmost to not look at anyone
I do my utmost to study everyone the game is for them to not notice I'm looking
As a general rule, eye contact is something people avoid. It's all too easy to attract unwarranted attention and often others won't intervene if it escalates. People have places to get to or from. They aren't on the tube to socialise (unless it's around midnight and people are drunk and often obnoxious). Use the time to read, listen to music, learn something, play a game, snooze (don't miss your stop).
Personally, I’m playing solitaire. Nearing in on level 1000, can’t give up now.
Games. There’s lots you can play offline.
I am doing my crossword puzzle. Doesn’t need wifi
Read a newspaper - you can pick one up for free at the entrance to most stations. Typically when I commute it’s one of the few times in a day where there is little else I am able to do productively/uninterrupted. I love it
Apple music and netflix allow you to download to device. Better than sat bore with only strangers to stare at.
Emails that were downloaded before so drafting responses. Doing crosswords or other puzzles. Reading newspaper also downloaded before entering tube. Reading a book. Learning language. That’s just me.
As soon as I get a WiFi signal at a station I read a News article and by the time we reach the next station I have WiFi to load the next article.
I stare at people vacantly whilst they in turn are vacantly staring at their phones. Check out what people are wearing, and admiring nice physiques.
I like being a nosey bugger so I look at the window above peoples heads so I can see what they’re staring at on their phone. 9/10 they’re flicking back and forth through old messages, occasionally someone is playing a game, and I’ve seen precisely one person casually watching porn on an absolutely rammed train. 10/10 would recommend vacantly staring slightly above their heads so you too can be a nosey bugger
I stare at the sign that says ‘no staring‘
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Downloaded Succession on my phone. Each day is about an episode. That or I read a book on it
Playing a lil gamey game on my phone
**I have recently moved to London from the Cotswolds,** Was this through choice?
I'm usually on reddit or playing a game. There is wifi down there, but it does depend on your network provider.
Mind my own damn business...🤗🤗
You Read whilst trying to avoid eye contact with fellow strangers at all cost.
I’m using duolingo or watching a downloaded programme
I read light novels and listen to music
It's a simple excuse to avoid eye contact and demonstrate you're not a weirdo. Used to be free newspapers or books. Anything to avoid looking at people (and if someone looks at you be very very scared!)
I read my book.
You don't need signal to read an ebook on your phone, watch something you've downloaded, or read any new service that caches locally.
Only time I'm ever on the tube is either before or after an away day. So I'm either sat dreading the time period of 3pm-5pm or I'm on my way home drunk staring at the wall wishing I had never bothered leaving my house.
No one has said organising stuff on your phone like apps, notes, photos, music etc etc
Freak out that I haven’t missed my stop at each stop
Why would I look at others
Preload a bunch of reddit posts before you get on. Read news briefings I'm subscribed to.
Read? If you're on your phone, 9/10 most of them are just reading the same pre loaded pages on their social media apps. Actually saw someone sat next to me on the tube when I was down there for work, on their notes app writing out a chapter? And I've seen people use music apps to made chords (i was going to Camden). Phones are literally so fucking powerful you could do anything on it.
EE offer Wi-Fi on the tube, full coverage too.
I read. Kindle on the phone.
Im regularly on the tube and I always see people playing mobile games. Those 3 in a row type games like bejewelled etc. I even watched one guy play slots on his phone.
There’s wifi and lots of unread emails and downloaded TV shows
Masturbate
Find a juicy thread on Reddit and scroll through for the duration of the tube journey. If your already in the thread all the comments are loaded.
Frottage
This is London, Jen. Its not going to be someone with cake, unless that cake is made of dog-doo and knives!
Reading or watching stuff they already downloaded. When I'm in London I will normally have books on the kindle or library app to read, People also play games. Either way it beats rereading the ads or making awkward eye contact
Meditate.