This past Friday I got on my favorite Northeast Regional Amtrak train for the quite easy two-hour trip from DC to Philly. Of course, this was made easier because I was equipped, as always, with my favorite gadgets: my personal cell phone, my work Blackberry (for e-mails, the Internet and Brickbreaker), my iPod (with hours upon hours of both movies and video entertainment) and my computer (with a multitude of TV episodes and the potential to play The Sims 2 if things really got rough). I love Amtrak for having an outlet at my seat – perish the thought that one of my electronic devices could run out of battery.
A middle-aged man gets on the train at Baltimore carrying only a newspaper and sits down next to me. I continue watching something on my laptop (with headphones in) until he says, “This is my first train ride!”
Needless to say, I’m floored. I think about the juxtaposition and I’m actually stunned.
On the left, we have a 20-something Gen Yer who has taken more train rides than he can remember and has brought every possible electronic device with him to amuse himself to the extent that a rainstorm in the train car would pretty much wipe him out. And then sitting next to him is a 50-something Boomer who has never traveled by train and has brought just today’s Washington Post to occupy him from Baltimore to New York City.
I looked around and watched the other teenagers and 20-somethings with their iPods and iPhones sitting next to sleeping 40- and 50- somethings.
We apparently need a lot more stimulation to be happy. Man are we spoiled…
I’m a tweener: never travel w/o a copy of Washington Post but also have my ipod ready to go.
I’m a 50 something – depends upon my mood. Love to read – often read while listening to the iTouch. However the rythym of the train often lulls me to sleep. It’s great when my destination and the last stop for the train are the same.