Watching the London Terror Attack Through a Phone Screen
I was on the tube when it happened — and the experience was surreal
I find out first from my phone. That’s how it is these days: a notification, a buzz and a red circle in the corner of an app. My pocket vibrates, and when I check it, there is a message from a friend, panicked.
“I hope you’re okay. Let me know you’re safe!”
I can deduce from the message that something is happening, but I have no idea what. Gas leak, train crash, terrorism, Black Friday-related atrocity, I don’t know.
It’s as if we’re joining everything in medias res, like a postmodern film.
It is a peculiar ailment of the modern world to know that something is happening, but to not know what. I often find myself on Twitter seeing outrage but not knowing what I should be outraged at. It’s as if we’re joining everything in medias res, like a postmodern film.
“I’m fine,” I text back, “but out of the loop. Something has happened?”
I am on a tube train, so the signal is patchy. Underground there is no phone connectivity, but each station has Wi-Fi. As you travel beneath London you catch glimpses of what’s happening on the surface in the 30…
