Getting a teenager’s attention.
When people text, talk, Snapchat, Facebook or play games on their mobile phones and walk at the same time, it can be very difficult to get their attention. As they shuffle slowly along, focussed only on what is glaring at them from their little screen, they are oblivious to everyone else around them……..especially portly balding businessmen trying to get passed them because they don’t want to be late for their next appointment. The worst of these offenders are young girls, teenagers in particular. Once engrossed in their digital worlds, waiting for the «likes» they so crave for their latest duck arsed lip pout Snapchat pose, they can blank out everything else. They are impossible to snap out of the hypnotic social media trance they live in. Staring zombie-like at their phones whilst their thumbs dart backwards and forwards across the screen in a blur of activity. I don’t even think the sound of gunfire would cause them to raise an eyebrow let alone trying to get their attention to move aside with polite calls of “excuse me”.
Fear not all you portly balding businessmen…. there is a solution! Like many genius solutions, they are discovered completely by accident and not even related to original problem what so ever.
Remember this solution because it works and works bloody well!
I cannot take any credit for this amazing idea either. I was just present when it happened and have used it ever since.
I was in Vancouver, Canada, taking the the Seabus (pronounced SEABASS locally) ferry across from the city to North Vancouver. It is a popular ferry, running often and only taking minutes to make the crossing. Unfortunately, I happened to catch the ferry just after the schools had finished for the day because my ferry was dominated by teenagers. As we exited the ferry, I tried to get passed the throng of teenage girls ambling slowly along staring at their phones. My calls of “excuse me” were falling on deaf ears. Then it happened. A call went out so powerful that every, and I mean every, teenage lady snapped their heads up so fast I thought they might suffer whiplash. As dozens of girls stood to attention with their heads looking rapidly in all directions, their eyes opened wide, they looked remarkably like a large mob of meerkats watching for danger. Forgetting their phones and digital worlds completely, they appeared very nervous. Of course, I seized this chance to squeeze passed them all.
What was this brilliant comment that instantly mustered such fear in those young girls?
“Is that rain?”
