WHEN I MOVED BACK to London at the start of this year, something was noticeably different. It wasn’t the shiny new Elizabeth Line, nor was it the outdoor pissoirs that now dot the streets of Soho. No, this change is more pervasive, and hard to put a finger on at first. But step into almost any tube carriage and there it will be: noise playing out loud from the smartphone of one of your fellow travellers.
Sometimes it’s music, or the sound effects of a game, or full-length via one of their phones. But most often it will be just snatches of music or dialogue from one social media clip after another, which the viewer flicks through glassyeyed and entranced, seemingly oblivious to the intrusion they are making on the people around them.
