I wear my iPod when I walk to the bus stop each morning. Today, I get there, and I know the other person standing at the bus stop, and she has her iPod in as well. We just nod at each other, basically saying, “I acknowledge you are there and that I know you. If I had something worthwhile to say, I’d take my earphones off and tell you, but I don’t.” We then stood there for 10 minutes listening to our iPods not paying attention to each other. At the next bus stop, somebody else I know gets on the bus. He’s wearing an iPod also, and the same thing happens. We nod at each other, he takes a seat near me, and we don’t interact past that.
Is anti-social behavior socially acceptable if it’s mutual? I’m really bad at reading people, so perhaps it wasn’t mutual. In any case, thank you Santa Jobs for saving me from pointless idle chatter!
