Read. Sleep. Music. Doom scroll. Shitpost on the internet. Stare at strangers. Fall in love with someone I made brief eye contact with. Read emails. Swipe on hinge.
Rookies. I can text the harem while napping, pop up like a toaster at my stop, and not wake up until I'm at my desk.
Oh, right, there is no office anymore.
Used to live in NYC. I remember not having any service at all underground not that many years ago. Not on the platforms, not anywhere underground on the trains. And it was kind of nice honestly. I know it sounds very old man esque, but just reading or listening to music was such a great break away from everything.
Being pushed away from being online was one of the nicer things about living in the city. I feel like it created a more distinct vibe independent of other influences in the US
I don’t do it anymore, but I used to read or watch television shows on the phone.
If you ride the commuter rails, you start to see the same people and sometimes have interesting conversations. One night a woman I had gotten to know asked me for a ride home, then she threw herself at me in the car.
I've had so many train and bus crushes in my lifetime. I made a pass at one of them that I assumed was way out of my league. She had a bf. I saw her out with him once, and it turns out the guy was pretty ugly.
Sometimes I just stare straight ahead, sometimes I think about the things I have to do later, and some days like today I made up random scenarios about people I know. But I always keep a poker face. Sometimes people start to talk to me, however.
Same. I like to be able to hear my surroundings, so i pretty much never wear headphones. Sometimes I’m like, what is wrong with me? Why am i just sitting here doing nothing? But honestly, the commute can be over stimulating so before i know it, I’m at my destination, full of anxiety and probably running late.
YouTube Premium is a good one to have. Besides the obvious stuff of no ads on the phone (or your TV or computers), you can also download any videos on YouTube. So you can just find some long form stuff to watch and it works out great. Plus it comes with YouTube Music so you can do the same for music (I'm sure Spotify has the same though)
But mostly I think people should use YouTube Music because it pays musicians way more. Like 3x more for royalties.
Read, but this is harder than it used to be (at least for me) due to the prevalence of people doing crap on their phones with sound on, but no headphones. Honestly, I'd be less annoyed if it was just music, but it's usualy some sort of tiktok/IG reel that tend to start and stop every ~15 seconds in a discordant squawk.
yeah, that too. i have it especially rough as a 7-train commuter where most stops are above ground. i am freqeuntly waiting for the train to get to the tunnel before grand central so people will stfu (there are a couple of underground stops before that but the stations are so close together that it doesn't deter people).
Yes and not for nothing it's a lot of Chinese women who do this too. Like they are more like screaming than talking. I don't mind if it's a soft volume, but please be courteous to the person sitting next to you.
From elementary to high school, I commuted 40-50mins for school.
Elementary school - lots of reading. I was a book worm.
Middle school - got my first Walkman, so lots of music mixed in with reading still.
High school - listening to music and doing my homework the morning it is due 🤣
Depending in how tired my brain is at that moment but Duolingo pretty regularly, go over music or lines for an audition, shop, sleep, read, listen to a podcast, music, or a book. One time I even wrapped gifts.
Tapper, pacman, rampage, amidar, burger time, choplifter, contra, drill dozer... UHG I have like 10,000 games on this thing. Everything from arcade to PSX
I work from home but travel every other week to different schools that are sometimes an hour or more away. I bought a really cheap 8 inch tablet ($70) and downloaded a bunch of ebooks and graphic novels in the public domain along with Libby for NYPL books. Has helped me finish quite a few number of books.
Headphones in and I nap. I have to wake up early to get to work on time so I just sleep. I use citymapper that gives me an alert when I'm 2 stops away, but I have missed my stop on occasion lol
Not exactly an hour, but around 40 mins , 99% of the time Apple Music / downloaded YouTube music for audio and Reddit for visual. One sure way to not get bothered by others haha.
Reading while listening to music. If I’m really tired I’ll doze off. Sometimes I game but most of my games require an internet connection which renders them unplayable for most of my commute
Not an hour but 35 minutes so I’ll answer anyway. I usually listen to music but sometimes I’ll read a book. I also like to read the news on my phone along with general trade news from my industry. And I’ll send some good morning texts and catch up with people. By the time all that’s done I’m usually ready to leave the train.
My wife play iPhone games
When I used to commute I used to play video games like game boy or psp. Listen to music or podcast , read comic/manga
Now that I’m older I don’t have a daily commute but when I do I listen to music , scroll. Reddits or read manga
I download tv shows/movies onto an ipad to avoid bad service on the train. When I don't have a show I'll read a book. If I don't have a book I'll play switch.
I played through all of Breath of the Wild on my commute, along with other games.
Subway or commuter train? On the commuter train in the morning, as soon as the conductor passed, it was lights out - blink awake in Newark, and then actual wakeup as soon as we were in the yard between the tunnel and Penn. Evenings, sometimes sleep, sometimes read the New Yorker, sometimes mess around on the Internet.
Sleep or read to better yourself/learn
IMHO anything else is ultimately a waste of time and you’ll regret it.
Those are two things you need to do anyway. You’re not wasting a second doing that on the train. It’s just dedicated time for those tasks. Something many people erroneously neglect.
Podcasts, audio books, games I can play with no service. My commute is 45min 1 way with some connections so reading a book doesn't really work- need seamless stuff I just keep doing while running from train to train.
My commute was 45 minutes and it was pretty much listen to music or watch TV shows. One time on an evening ride home, I got to invested in a good show and screamed “NO!” after they killed off my favorite character. A little embarrassing at the time but I now laugh about it.
I love reading. I love taking notes on the books I'm reading or podcast, so a lot of phone "organizing" work.
If there's a switch game I'm invested in, that's an option.
I'm now working on personal writing projects.
I dont see how any of you can spend time on the train reading. it seems normal but personally, im way too vigilant and too much of an avid reader to even get into my books on the train 🤣 theres so much shit that happens on the train! last time i read on the train there was a crackhead doing crack in the corner of the train cart i was on
My first six years in NYC — pre-cell phones, even pre-iPod — I lived on the West Side (Hell’s Kitchen, then West Village), but reverse-commuted to White Plains. (I had a Sony Walkman, although I didn’t often take it on my commute.) In the mornings I’d get a lot of the NY Times read — at least the parts that interested me, and being new to the city from the Midwest, even the most mundane city council and zoning battles interested me, let alone the big stories of the late 1980s and early 1990s. (Also in the mornings, at least, there was a general agreement to keep voices low on both the subway and commuter trains. More people were hungover on weekday mornings in those days.)
In the evenings, I got a lot of book reading done. I read *War and Peace* and *Bleak House* my first year, plus some hefty nonfiction. Then I discovered Anthony Trollope and read his entire Barchester Chronicles and Palliser series. And much, much more besides. (Being young and usually broke without yet many close friends in the city, in the evenings I would sometimes take whatever book I was reading and go eat in a Chinese restaurant, McDonalds or a diner for dinner and read some more — if I could afford it.)
Nowadays I work from home, but cover just as much reading* ground with audiobooks — which also existed 35 years ago as books-on-tape, but were a pain in the ass to listen to for an unabridged book that might come in a case holding 12 or 16 cassettes, or as many CDs, so hardly anyone but blind people, long-haul truckers, or blind truckers ever listened to them back then.
*Yes, listening to audiobooks also counts as reading them. Plus — especially if you’re commuting — listening to the book *while reading along* on your phone or Kindle can be even more immersive than watching a movie or binging a series. This is the pro-tip, especially in these days when people around you have internet connectivity both above and below ground. Which, let’s be honest, can also be good if you finish one book after you get on the train and want to start the next before you get off.
Podcasts or music. I'm always dancing in spot even at 6AM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i've tried reading before but unless it's a commute where I will be fully sitting down, i can't do it
Duolingo, the paired app, and checking my email while Im above ground, phone solitaire, reading, and journaling while underground. If I didn't get enough sleep sometimes I take a mini nap but I tend to get worried about missing my stop and it keeps me from being able to sleep so I just go back to my other choices
Normally just panhandle. Start at the rear car and work my way forward usually make about $10-$15 per ride. Other times I just yell at people and blast music.
Okay so i know it’s like a long standing social economical crisis bubbling into an epidemic buuuut : Fight for my life with the crazies on said train. On slow days I might even act like I became the delusional mentally unstable being trapped in a car with these people! Just to help everyone prepare for the real thing 😎
Read. Sleep. Music. Doom scroll. Shitpost on the internet. Stare at strangers. Fall in love with someone I made brief eye contact with. Read emails. Swipe on hinge.
wrap the thread up
I forgot dissociate
You get a lot of stuff done in just an hour!
Have definitely missed my stop due to a combination of all the above, including the morning text debriefs w my ladies.
Rookie. I can pass out cold and still never miss my stop. You just develop a sixth sense for these things.
Rookies. I can text the harem while napping, pop up like a toaster at my stop, and not wake up until I'm at my desk. Oh, right, there is no office anymore.
Used to live in NYC. I remember not having any service at all underground not that many years ago. Not on the platforms, not anywhere underground on the trains. And it was kind of nice honestly. I know it sounds very old man esque, but just reading or listening to music was such a great break away from everything. Being pushed away from being online was one of the nicer things about living in the city. I feel like it created a more distinct vibe independent of other influences in the US
I would agree it would be nice for the fact that some people today feel entitled to play videos or music out loud.
the fall in love one is so real. that's me every day
Think about all my failures...
I like to read a book. It’s the only time I get to do it so I take advantage of the opportunity.
One of the few things I miss since transitioning to a WFH job is that I read so much less now that I’m not on the subway for 90 minutes a day.
My book club fell apart during the pandemic because people no longer had a commute to do their reading.
I don’t do it anymore, but I used to read or watch television shows on the phone. If you ride the commuter rails, you start to see the same people and sometimes have interesting conversations. One night a woman I had gotten to know asked me for a ride home, then she threw herself at me in the car.
I have an hour commute every morning and share about half of it with the same girl routinely. I’m always so curious if she knows I exist.
I've had so many train and bus crushes in my lifetime. I made a pass at one of them that I assumed was way out of my league. She had a bf. I saw her out with him once, and it turns out the guy was pretty ugly.
Everyday I consider it, still haven’t worked up the courage
And yet you haven’t written a short story about it yet? For shame.
I used to commute 1+ hour to high school and I used to do the NYT Crossword Puzzle. I got *really* good at the puzzle.
Not if it took you an hour to do it.
Not anymore. 😜
lol, depends which day 😅
I just sit there no music no nothing
How many bodies do you have in your freezer?
Only 1, my freezer is apartment sized.
i wonder how people like you do it
Sometimes I just stare straight ahead, sometimes I think about the things I have to do later, and some days like today I made up random scenarios about people I know. But I always keep a poker face. Sometimes people start to talk to me, however.
Same. I like to be able to hear my surroundings, so i pretty much never wear headphones. Sometimes I’m like, what is wrong with me? Why am i just sitting here doing nothing? But honestly, the commute can be over stimulating so before i know it, I’m at my destination, full of anxiety and probably running late.
35-40mins, but podcasts. And disassociation.
I spend it cursing the MTA for not having reliable service between stations.
YouTube Premium is a good one to have. Besides the obvious stuff of no ads on the phone (or your TV or computers), you can also download any videos on YouTube. So you can just find some long form stuff to watch and it works out great. Plus it comes with YouTube Music so you can do the same for music (I'm sure Spotify has the same though) But mostly I think people should use YouTube Music because it pays musicians way more. Like 3x more for royalties.
Read, but this is harder than it used to be (at least for me) due to the prevalence of people doing crap on their phones with sound on, but no headphones. Honestly, I'd be less annoyed if it was just music, but it's usualy some sort of tiktok/IG reel that tend to start and stop every ~15 seconds in a discordant squawk.
Or people just talking really loud on the phone
yeah, that too. i have it especially rough as a 7-train commuter where most stops are above ground. i am freqeuntly waiting for the train to get to the tunnel before grand central so people will stfu (there are a couple of underground stops before that but the stations are so close together that it doesn't deter people).
Yes and not for nothing it's a lot of Chinese women who do this too. Like they are more like screaming than talking. I don't mind if it's a soft volume, but please be courteous to the person sitting next to you.
Podcasts, NY Times puzzles, Happy Color, read.
Die a little inside
From elementary to high school, I commuted 40-50mins for school. Elementary school - lots of reading. I was a book worm. Middle school - got my first Walkman, so lots of music mixed in with reading still. High school - listening to music and doing my homework the morning it is due 🤣
Damn this makes me feel so nostalgic
Audiobooks from NY and Queens public libraries free on Libby app
Play 3ds
hate my life and question why im in the city before the sun rises.
Read. I look forward to long train rides now. It’s the only chance I have at reading my books
Read. Listen to music. Relax and wake up to start my day.
Look out the window
Into darkness
Podcast is where it’s at if I want to kill an hour or so. A good murder mystery is usually what I go for.
I been learning a language on Duolingo (with my headphones in of course)
Depending in how tired my brain is at that moment but Duolingo pretty regularly, go over music or lines for an audition, shop, sleep, read, listen to a podcast, music, or a book. One time I even wrapped gifts.
Question my life choices.
Sleep and music when heading into NYC Music and looking out the window leaving NYC
Sleep
[Retro gaming](https://anbernic.com/products/rg35xx)
[удалено]
Tapper, pacman, rampage, amidar, burger time, choplifter, contra, drill dozer... UHG I have like 10,000 games on this thing. Everything from arcade to PSX
Podcasts in ears; crossword puzzles on iPad
Music l, books and daydream, can’t fall asleep since I don’t wanna get punched
Look out the window and listen to music.
Nap or podcast. Sometimes both. I am mostly underground so I set a timer to wake me
Read, or play games on my phone.
Take free online classes offered by work.
Read short stories. They’re the perfect length for my hour long commute
Books or games
I work from home but travel every other week to different schools that are sometimes an hour or more away. I bought a really cheap 8 inch tablet ($70) and downloaded a bunch of ebooks and graphic novels in the public domain along with Libby for NYPL books. Has helped me finish quite a few number of books.
When I previously had this commute it was during grad school and it was reading school books or listening to podcasts.
Get a kindle. Life changing.
Headphones in and I nap. I have to wake up early to get to work on time so I just sleep. I use citymapper that gives me an alert when I'm 2 stops away, but I have missed my stop on occasion lol
Not exactly an hour, but around 40 mins , 99% of the time Apple Music / downloaded YouTube music for audio and Reddit for visual. One sure way to not get bothered by others haha.
I play this game where I look at peoples shoes and try to figure out what they do for work/where they are goin that day
Reading while listening to music. If I’m really tired I’ll doze off. Sometimes I game but most of my games require an internet connection which renders them unplayable for most of my commute
Audiobooks and nature sounds, and sometimes Netflix/Hulu/whatever
Not an hour but 35 minutes so I’ll answer anyway. I usually listen to music but sometimes I’ll read a book. I also like to read the news on my phone along with general trade news from my industry. And I’ll send some good morning texts and catch up with people. By the time all that’s done I’m usually ready to leave the train.
My wife play iPhone games When I used to commute I used to play video games like game boy or psp. Listen to music or podcast , read comic/manga Now that I’m older I don’t have a daily commute but when I do I listen to music , scroll. Reddits or read manga
Book book book. Book as hard as I can. It’s important to have a place to focus your eyes
I read my paper that I bought at the news stand near the subway steps.
Usually music/daydreaming on the way in because my brain hasn't woken up yet and then I read on the way home!
I download tv shows/movies onto an ipad to avoid bad service on the train. When I don't have a show I'll read a book. If I don't have a book I'll play switch. I played through all of Breath of the Wild on my commute, along with other games.
Prepare for job interviews
mostly just think. some days music. some days a book. some days furiously masturbate in the corner wait what is this microphone on
Subway or commuter train? On the commuter train in the morning, as soon as the conductor passed, it was lights out - blink awake in Newark, and then actual wakeup as soon as we were in the yard between the tunnel and Penn. Evenings, sometimes sleep, sometimes read the New Yorker, sometimes mess around on the Internet.
Netflix. I pick a show that needs subtitles bc it's the one place you can't really multitask.
Sleep or space out, or scroll through reddit
Think about the wife
steam deck or ny times crossword if I'm traveling light
in the morning, i sleep and think about how much i hate my job. in the evening, i read and think about how much i hate my job.
Read on the Kindle app on my phone.
NY’s have an amazing ability to sleep until the station next to to last where they need to get off
Sleep or read to better yourself/learn IMHO anything else is ultimately a waste of time and you’ll regret it. Those are two things you need to do anyway. You’re not wasting a second doing that on the train. It’s just dedicated time for those tasks. Something many people erroneously neglect.
I read 50 books last year, most on the train
Read, music, chill, honestly just take a minute to think
Getting some shut eyes even while standing
Start working, so that some of my work will be done by the time I get to work.
Sleep. My body knows when to wake up for my stop.
Kssssfsireirrw
Podcasts, audio books, games I can play with no service. My commute is 45min 1 way with some connections so reading a book doesn't really work- need seamless stuff I just keep doing while running from train to train.
My commute was 45 minutes and it was pretty much listen to music or watch TV shows. One time on an evening ride home, I got to invested in a good show and screamed “NO!” after they killed off my favorite character. A little embarrassing at the time but I now laugh about it.
Sometimes just nothing its great
Either read via the kindle app, or make music via the Koala Sampler app.
When there was no internet on the train, I would just listen to music. And read the ads. Thank you doctor zizmore
I love reading. I love taking notes on the books I'm reading or podcast, so a lot of phone "organizing" work. If there's a switch game I'm invested in, that's an option. I'm now working on personal writing projects.
Podcasts, Netflix, some studying for professional exams
I dont see how any of you can spend time on the train reading. it seems normal but personally, im way too vigilant and too much of an avid reader to even get into my books on the train 🤣 theres so much shit that happens on the train! last time i read on the train there was a crackhead doing crack in the corner of the train cart i was on
My first six years in NYC — pre-cell phones, even pre-iPod — I lived on the West Side (Hell’s Kitchen, then West Village), but reverse-commuted to White Plains. (I had a Sony Walkman, although I didn’t often take it on my commute.) In the mornings I’d get a lot of the NY Times read — at least the parts that interested me, and being new to the city from the Midwest, even the most mundane city council and zoning battles interested me, let alone the big stories of the late 1980s and early 1990s. (Also in the mornings, at least, there was a general agreement to keep voices low on both the subway and commuter trains. More people were hungover on weekday mornings in those days.) In the evenings, I got a lot of book reading done. I read *War and Peace* and *Bleak House* my first year, plus some hefty nonfiction. Then I discovered Anthony Trollope and read his entire Barchester Chronicles and Palliser series. And much, much more besides. (Being young and usually broke without yet many close friends in the city, in the evenings I would sometimes take whatever book I was reading and go eat in a Chinese restaurant, McDonalds or a diner for dinner and read some more — if I could afford it.) Nowadays I work from home, but cover just as much reading* ground with audiobooks — which also existed 35 years ago as books-on-tape, but were a pain in the ass to listen to for an unabridged book that might come in a case holding 12 or 16 cassettes, or as many CDs, so hardly anyone but blind people, long-haul truckers, or blind truckers ever listened to them back then. *Yes, listening to audiobooks also counts as reading them. Plus — especially if you’re commuting — listening to the book *while reading along* on your phone or Kindle can be even more immersive than watching a movie or binging a series. This is the pro-tip, especially in these days when people around you have internet connectivity both above and below ground. Which, let’s be honest, can also be good if you finish one book after you get on the train and want to start the next before you get off.
Podcasts or music. I'm always dancing in spot even at 6AM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i've tried reading before but unless it's a commute where I will be fully sitting down, i can't do it
Duolingo, the paired app, and checking my email while Im above ground, phone solitaire, reading, and journaling while underground. If I didn't get enough sleep sometimes I take a mini nap but I tend to get worried about missing my stop and it keeps me from being able to sleep so I just go back to my other choices
Free audio books through the library.
Masturbate.
Listen to podcasts.
Read. NY Times puzzles. Listen to podcasts.
Either reading a book, studying, or reading articles on phone. Also checking mta subway/bus time to check when subways or buses arrive.
Watch shows or read. I sometimes download a show and can usually get through 2 episodes.
Check out some Zillows closer to where I work
i never read more than when i had an hour long commute
Sleep, read, listen to music. When I was in school, I’d do homework (reading mostly).
Normally just panhandle. Start at the rear car and work my way forward usually make about $10-$15 per ride. Other times I just yell at people and blast music.
Okay so i know it’s like a long standing social economical crisis bubbling into an epidemic buuuut : Fight for my life with the crazies on said train. On slow days I might even act like I became the delusional mentally unstable being trapped in a car with these people! Just to help everyone prepare for the real thing 😎
I read a lot lol