The Death of Daydreaming

I used to ride busses before cell phones and smartphones and no one was exactly striking up conversations back then either

I'm sure it happens, but it seemed rare to me. People read books or magazines, or were just too cramped and crowded to bother trying to interact

I used to ride the train to and from work, I'd usually read the paper (cheap if you bought it in the afternoon) or sleep (most mornings).

The population of bus riders skews younger—even excluding the school bus, I think, lots of folks public transit are young professionals and college student. The nostalgia for a time that didn’t actually happen hits this crew early.

Yes

For college students they likely almost always find themselves surrounded by familiar faces, even classmates, because they are all going to class at the same time on the same transit

So yeah, it would be easier to strike up a random conversation with people you recognize from campus or just people who are all part of your similar demographic

I am riding public transit to my uni for 5 years by now and the number of times I was approached for a casual conversation is 0 for today :D

I never saw anything like that happen.