I don’t know about you, but when I get on the sky train or the bus I always put my ear buds or headphones on. Not only is it a way to pass the time on public transit, but also a way to tune out the outside world and prevent people from talking to me.

And I know I’m not the only one. Whenever I get on any form of public transportation, I can look around and see that almost 90% of the people on the same bus or sky train as I am will have the ear buds in. It seems that the city has developed a culture on public transit of not wanting to talk to others.

It is not only public transit either. It’s in almost every public space that you go into. It could be walking along the sidewalk, or sitting in a coffee shop as well. It’s almost as if having the ear buds or headphones has become part of your essential equipment for the day.

It is almost as if as a city we have decided to forego spontaneous human connection, and decided to go with the security of our playlists, podcasts, or YouTube videos. As a city, we’ve decided to embrace out identity of being cold but kind, and not changing it to make other people’s lives better.

People getting on and off of public transit (Credit: TobiasRehbein via Pixabay)

It can also change the perspective of the day as well. Like when it’s a rainy day outside, and everything is miserable, putting on a playlist of upbeat music can change it from a dreary rainy day to feeling like you are the soul star of an action movie. It’s as if we are not listening to music anymore, but instead experiencing it to augment our everyday lives.

Vancouver has being called a city that is “cold but polite”. Where we would rather be in our own world as opposed to interacting with others outside of it. It has become so ingrained in our culture and DNA as a city that when we don’t have our earbuds, it feels like an entirely different world.

maybe as a city it is time for us to step outside of our own world, and embrace the people that also live inside of it. To embrace not only our friends and family, but strangers along the way as well. You never know who you’re going to meet, you may even meet your best friend, but you’ll never know if we stick to the culture that we currently have of staying in our own world and not venturing outside of it.