David MacLean

I live in Canada's boiler room.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@cselley At Pearson, an actual @aircanada employee directed me to a courtesy phone at the other end of the terminal to call Air Canada. I’m currently on hold and have been for an hour.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@aircanada cancelled our flight from Toronto to Edmonton today. They rebooked us for Tuesday — full 48 hours later. Tried to call them but was on hold for a combined two hours. Never got through to anyone before the call dropped. What a shit show.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@RyanNPike Trading a few pieces to move up the draft order.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Swap the phones for newspapers and this is a subway photo from 1920.

A sociologist named Erving Goffman described exactly this in 1963. He called it civil inattention: the learned habit of acknowledging that a stranger exists, then pulling your attention back so you don't intrude on them. A quick glance, then you look away. In a space packed with people you will never see again, looking away is the courtesy.

It's the quiet contract that lets a few hundred strangers share a tight platform without friction. You signal "I see you, you're no threat, I won't bother you." Phones slotted neatly into that ritual. They are the most convincing prop anyone has ever had for performing it.

The newspaper did the same job for a century. Subway photos from the 1920s through the 1970s show entire rows of riders vanished behind broadsheets, every face covered, nobody speaking. Radio got blamed for ending conversation. So did the Walkman. So did the cheap paperback before either of them. Each new object inherited the same eulogy: this is the thing that finally isolated us.

Connection on a subway platform was always rare. Strangers waiting for a train kept to themselves long before anyone had a screen to disappear into. The phone's real footprint is at the dinner table and in the living room, the places where idle attention used to have nowhere to go and now always does.

The behavior in this photo is a hundred years old. The object in everyone's hands is the only part that keeps getting replaced.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@sarobertson_ @LukaszukAB Looks like there was a communication problem from the beginning. Thomas should own up. It’s weird.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@JakeRichard4444 @cspotweet lol

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@CanTrueCrime @CBSNews Shut up. I’ve stood on, fished off and camped next to beaver lodges many times. Beavers don’t behave that way.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@nielsonTSN1260 Man, you have to let them play together a season. He’s making the team.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@GasPriceWizard Where can I acquire one of these cheap golf carts?

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@KaterynaLis @acoyne A message from the future?

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@JakeRichard4444 @cspotweet Nobody tell Jake they don’t make phone books anymore.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@nielsonTSN1260 If you are worried about being mentally drained in the first round….

[Epic Clip Vault @EpicClipVault]

Guy loses it when his coworker dresses up as him for Halloween 🤣

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

I seem to recall this kind of thing happened back in Fort Mac when Syncrude and Suncor played a charity game.

[theScore @theScore]

THE FDNY AND NYPD ARE BRAWLING IN THEIR ANNUAL HOCKEY TILT! 💥

(🎥: @AMitchReporting)

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@jkenney @gordondirks Can you envision scenarios where MAID actually is a freedom we should have?

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

Coming at ya, live from the Houston airport!

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@DominicCardy If your loved-one died, this would be the least of your concerns.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@NHLRumourReport If money is the objective a second team in Toronto region makes sense.

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@MatchsticksCGY Sounds awesome

[David MacLean @davidamaclean]

@JasonGregor Simon’s.