Leaving on a Jetplane

When I'm stuck on a plane, no matter if it's one hour or 7 hours, I get up to stretch. This time it's no different - I've got a 4 hr flight from Boston to Dallas.  Walking up the skinny aisle for the second time, I remember to look around, see people, and notice what they are doing to pass the time.  

One man is reading a paper; the headline "China company to rival Uber" jumps out in big letters.  An older woman, I'm guessing over 60 (a conservative guess, I'm terrible at aging/distance/time estimates!),  is playing my newest iPhone game obsession - Candy Crush Saga. To be fair, every time I play it (ok, some of the times) I consider how to apply its gaming features into a classroom or an assignment; it's not total mindless fun! I'm guessing it's strictly fun for this little old lady. 

Other people are sleeping, watching shows or movies on their technology devices.  Hard to tell these days if it is Netflix, YouTube, some other online streaming service, or an illegal download off BitTorrent or the like. I'm not one to judge so I quickly glance away from screens of people watching videos of any kind. I'm not really interested in more screen time. For someone who's job it is to be pro-technology and up on the latest trends, you'll find me more often than not deviceless. Ask my parents, they'll give you a 10 min tirade of why I shouldn't even own a cellphone, let alone a SMARTone. (And no, I did not mean to set myself up their as the butt end of a joke.). All that to say, I'm more interested in what people not watching media of some kind are doing with their in flight time.

People are doing crosswords. Looking at email.  Working on power points.  Most are playing games on their tech devices.  But oh my my, some are still reading actual print books! My librarian heart sings.  The Guild House (verify) is the only title I remember among the mystery thriller novels that were in the majority.  I'm even pleased to see a few of the students with me on this trip have their summer reading books with them -  The Magicians, The History of Love, and We Are the Ants. 

An idea comes to me - I can ask a few people some questions and later post it via social media.  At first I'm thinking something similar to my old blog segment called 'What Are You Reading?'  This idea did not seem that crazy in our culture of status updates and hyper focus on "the now and the arbitrary" that social media allows.  Then I think of a recent student project I learned about where she had more meaningful but brief connections with people, asking them about how they met her, saw her then versus now.  This turned my thought to questions like - "Why do you choose to fly?" "Where are you going?" "Is the process worth the destination?" "What do you do during all the waiting?"  

I try to look more closely at people to see who I could ask.  A few look not too busy and some are just plain doing nothing. But as I turn back at the head of the aisle, I realize how impossible this idea is to actually do.  People are placed in tight quarters, if I try to talk to one person I'll prob be talking to everyone in that row. Then there are people who are not completely "plugged in" (i.e. not watching media, headphones not in both ears, not on) but are"doing stuff."  Airplanes are spaces that encourage little to no contact between people by its lack of privacy and tight qurters. Random connections to those in the seats adjacent to you sometimes happen out of politeness, but most people dread being stuck near someone who will talk the whole flight.  And here I was trying to vault acceptable social norms of airplane flying.  Would people really welcome this kind of disruption?  

Some settings lend themselves more to connecting with strangers, some times are better than others.  As I finished walking the aisle and sat back down,  I resigned myself to a few more hours of reading or Candy Crush Saga.  Maybe I'm just not the same person anymore.  Whatever the reason, this flight is not my next sociological experiment and I allow myself to be pulled back into the strange and spooky world of the book Sweet by Emmy Laybourne.