Warwick Life Strategies

I have a friend who is very private. She’s the type of person who likes to keep her thoughts to herself and isn’t comfortable disclosing too much to others. As a result, she’s been reluctant to embrace the social media world (like Facebook) fearing the invasion of her privacy and the chance that her personal information will fall into the wrong hands. Perfectly understandable.

What I find interesting though is that this same friend told me a story about a recent flight where she sat next to a woman of approximately the same age. She told me that they started to talk, share all kinds of stories about their lives and she even showed the woman the pictures of her husband and son that she had on board with her. When telling me this story, she had a smile on her face and at no point in the conversation did her reluctance to share personal info surface. It was as though she were talking about an old friend and not someone she had met and spoken with for less than an hour.

Her story made me wonder...when travelling, what makes many of us feel secure in connecting with others (‘strangers’) and causes us to feel alright about divulging more personal info than we might otherwise do in a different environment? I know it seems like I’m referencing the one example of my friend in asking this question, but I think if we look back throughout our own life experiences, we can find occasions where this is true. I know that I definitely can.

Could it have to do with the fact that while travelling we are forced into sharing the same, confined space? Possibly we’re bored and just looking for conversation (though that doesn’t explain divulging personal information and as well, during some of these flights – my friend’s included – you hardly have enough time to finish your pop and pretzels let alone get bored!) Perhaps we feel safe disclosing because these are people whom we are not worried about meeting again. Or maybe we are experiencing fear and connecting on that level gives us some kind of reassurance?

What do you think? Are you more comfortable connecting with new people while travelling? Do you find this to be unique to air travel?? Many of us have seen those movies where people meet new friends or lovers on the bus, train, or subway, but interestingly, for the number of times that I’ve been on the Toronto subway I’ve noticed that people largely kept to themselves. I’ve also found the same to be true on city buses, Greyhound trips and while sharing a cab. Of course, these are my own experiences, but I’ve definitely felt a distinction with air travel.

What are your thoughts? Moving you forward, WLS