Are Ya Winning, Son?

How to take (or not take) action online

I’ve refreshed Instagram at least a dozen times since I joined this line at Gate C47, and the feed has given me all it can. Bored, slightly on edge, and about to enter the belly of a metal bird, I turn to look at the real world.

Ahead of me is a stroller with two kids in it — both are staring at a phone, and so is their mother. The older one, who’s five or so, seems to be on an age-controlled and kid-friendly version of TikTok. I see some unboxing content, which he swipes past, then a snippet of a cartoon. It’s a bad habit of mine to screen-peek. I’m just too curious. I’m sorry.

I look over to what the younger one (who seems to be about two) is doing. I don’t know the app, but she’s holding the phone horizontal and on the screen is a video of another toddler playing. The toddler on the screen is rolling a toy train along a track, smiling, and the background is pure aseptic white. For a few seconds, we follow the toddler with the train, and then we switch to a group of three kids sitting…