how to look around
If you've stumbled onto a college campus sometime since the invention of the iPhone, you may have noticed the very action of looking around has become increasingly radical. As a college student myself, I've observed that a college student without a phone in their face is a strange sight these days. As the strange sight incarnate, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on looking around: what it means, how to do it, and how doing it might get others to do it, too.
To clarify my terminology, "looking around" merely means existing in a public place in a sedentary or transitional state (on the train, in a hallway, etc.) without an iPhone in hand and in use. This can mean reading a book, doing a crossword, or just staring off into space, dealer's choice.
So how does one look around? If you're above the age of 25, you might not need this question answered for you, and it might surprise you just how little my generation interacts with each other in transitional public spaces. For me, it started with deleting social media, but this doesn't have to mean going completely internet-free. Personally, I still keep YouTube, Reddit, and Instagram on my phone, but scrolling around gets boring pretty fast, and I figure I can entertain myself better with a book when there's an hour to spare, so that's usually what I'm doing while waiting for a lecture hall to open. There's a lot of foot traffic in the hallway where my class is, but I find I'm usually the only person not looking at their phone. Even when there's an exception, I'm always the only person with a book out. I often find myself wondering if the youth believe reading is embarrassing. Should I be embarrassed?
Today, though, something changed.
While looking around, I caught someone staring at me (or staring at my book) out of the corner of my eye. After a few minutes of what I assumed was judging, she took out a book and began reading. A few more minutes later, another student sat down and texted for a few minutes before also taking out a book and reading. I'm not sure how much of an impact my reading had on the phenomenon, if any, but it felt nice looking around with people.