These days, sound bleeding from subpar headphones creates many a frustration subway ride, and one day, I’ll tackle the subject of personal music underground. I wanted, though, to direct everyone’s attention to a rather amusing article from last week’s Washington Post with the headline “Publicly, a whole new lewdness” and the subhead “Everywhere you look, porn is suddenly inescapable.”
As you might imagine, it is about the myriad ways people are using their iPhones, iPods and portable video devices to view pornography in public. In particular, Post staff writer Monica Hesse is concerned about the way Metro riders have caught others watching adult films on board. She tells the story of a seat mate who started watching her neighbor’s video with him after it caught her eye. That tale sounds a bit apocryphal though.
Personally, I’ll sometimes glimpse bits and pieces of familiar movies or a recent episode of Lost while riding the subway, but I have yet to catch anyone watching porn while riding the train. I’ve seen what Hesse calls “Drive-By Porn” — when a neighboring SUV on the highway has a porn cued up on the internal DVD player. The subways, though, have remained adult film-free for me. How about for you?
6 comments
I live in the Washington region. I take 2 metro trains and a bus in the morning and again each evening on my way to and from work. I’ve never seen anyone viewing porn.
In fact, the worst I ever encounter is lost tourists obscenely viewing maps while standing in the train doorway.
The newsstands in the subways and in Penn Station sell it (in old-fashioned magazine format), and someone must be buying it, so just because I haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
People should mind their own business. Don’t look at other peoples screens and they won’t have to worry about glimpsing porn. If you are a nosy body and looking at everyone, then you get what you deserve. If the sound is up, then that is obviously unacceptable.
That seems rather impossible to me. Shall we wear blinders and seal off peripheral vision while asking our fellow passengers to keep their portable video players hidden?
I personally never look at or notice what other people have on their cell phone screens or computer screens. I think it takes a concerted effort to look at someone’s screen.
Loud headphones? Offensive videos? What about people SINGING what’s on their headphones?