What is the difference between these two images?

Not a lot as it turns out. The walk to my daughter’s school in the early morning in London, increasingly resembles a Ho Chi Minh road crossing.

The dutiful lycra-clad US expat mothers in their Mercedes 4×4 desperately barge their way across oncoming traffic. Streams of city bicyclists cross lights with impunity and shout profanities at those who question their behaviour. The Just Eat “L-plate” scooters pull right without the slightest glint in the mirror or the consequences for their own and others’ safety. Bus drivers tiptoe around knowing the full force of their company, and the law will strike them, should they not be fully concentrating. The headphone-adoring Filipino nannies let their charges hurtle along pavements
on scooters unattended without regard to the danger that lies ahead or for the less able walking in the opposite direction. Black Cab drivers curse Uber drivers desperately scanning their Waze maps. Delivery lorries scream at traffic wardens. No one but no one has patience anymore.

Yet these very same people will spend hours wasting away their lives on trivial matters (posting, reading and downloading inanities on social media or on a multitude of apps). In the “attention economy”, the self-obsession is omnipresent.