A Middle-Aged Woman's Smartphone
When I'm commuting by train, I sometimes find myself catching a glimpse of someone else's smartphone.
Looking at something so private is incredibly lacking in morals, so I generally try to look away quickly if I happen to see it. Above all, I wouldn't want someone looking at mine...
However, there are times when I simply cannot take my eyes off that screen. I'm sure everyone has experienced this at least once. Today, I'm going to talk about that.
The smartphones of strangers that I can't help but stare at are mostly those of middle-aged women or men.
Do you know what I mean? Even if I catch a glimpse of a young person's smartphone, I have zero interest in it.After all, I'm looking at the same kind of stuff.YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, Twitter (also known as X)—what's displayed on their screens is almost identical to mine. That's why my consciousness doesn't react even if it enters my field of vision.
But the smartphones of middle-aged women and men are different. First of all, the font size is different. I've even seen one set to such an absurdly large font size that I thought, "Wouldn't that actually be harder to read?" Because of the font size, there are so many line breaks that the number of times they have to scroll is clearly increased.
The apps and sites they use are also different. My part-time job has a point app that can be used at affiliated stores, and we have a QR code set up by the register for customers to download it. I was surprised when a middle-aged female customer opened a QR code scanning site that looked seriously suspicious. As expected, when she scanned the QR code, ads started playing, and the woman, having accidentally tapped one of the ads, asked me, "Is this the right app?"There's no way that's a beautiful girl game.
As you can see, do you understand now why we recognize middle-aged women's and men's smartphones as "something different" and why our attention is drawn to them? In other words, everything up to this point is an excuse I've made to try (and fail) to justify my morally lacking behavior.
Anyway, on my way home from university the other day, there was a middle-aged woman's smartphone that caught my eye (the following text contains some fakes to protect that woman's personal information).
First, what jumped out at me was the default Messages app on the iPhone. Yes, I don't use Messages. With LINE and Instagram DMs being the mainstream, it was a surprise that Messages was anyone's primary means of communication in the first place.
Next, what caught my eye was a surprisingly long message. The content the woman was sending and the content the other person was sending were both so long that I thought they might be fighting. However, what I caught a glimpse of was a sentence sent by the woman: "It's amazing that you can have a sense of self!" At the very least, it wasn't a fight.
I took another look. It was "On the third time, it's amazing that you can have a sense of self!" This is, I see. Suspicious. Is this a paid seminar? It's suspicious.
It seems that the woman was in the middle of inviting another woman to an event related to having a "sense of self" and was replying to a thank-you email. I wondered if the woman right in front of me also had a "sense of self."
I looked again. The person she was chatting with had changed from the previous one. The person in the conversation was urging the woman, saying, "You tried acai! Why don't you try garland chrysanthemum with this momentum?" ...No, that wasn't it. This woman is not someone who has a sense of self. If she had a sense of self, she probably wouldn't receive such solicitations, and her hands wouldn't stop while replying so obviously like this. That's right. The woman's hands were clearly more hesitant than before. You could see her hesitation regarding the garland chrysanthemum challenge.
Just then, the train announcement. I had to get off.
The woman also got off at the same station. As I went down the stairs and headed to the transfer platform, the train I was aiming for was already arriving. Thinking that the next train would come in less than 10 minutes, I didn't force myself to run.
Then, there was a light bump against the tote bag hanging on my shoulder.
It's that woman.The woman jogged past me, pushing me aside slightly.
This is the woman's own version of a "sense of self." I was convinced. She definitely had a firm sense of self.
Following her, I also arrived at the platform.
The woman hadn't made it in time.