Imagine wearing a badge which signals you’re “interested” in talking to someone. No, I am not talking about wearing one at an event for singletons, but rather while you catch a train or bus.

That’s what Jonathan Dunne did.

On Wednesday, a whole lot of badges and pieces of paper appeared across the London Underground. The badges had “Tube Chat?” written on them, while the pieces of paper read:

Have a chat with your fellow travellers. Wear this badge to let others know you’re interested. You’ll benefit from a daily chat. Start using it today.

Can you just imagine what Londoners thought of that? They can hardly crack a nod, let alone a “Hello”.

Dunne, who is American and hails from Colorado, currently works for the National Healthcare System (NHS) in the UK, and began handing out the badges on Wednesday morning. He was, however, not surprised by the negative response:

It’s been wild. I handed them out yesterday. This morning, there were two tweets about it, mocking me, and then I went to a meeting, got back and the world had gone crazy.

You’re so compartmentalised here, you sort of go into a trance on your way to work. It’s not the same as in New York. New Yorkers, even though they have a reputation of being brusque, tend to be a bit friendlier.

Yes, the hashtag #tube_chat was born – which is how the world went “crazy” – along with a dedicated Twitter and Instagram account, and the news spread like wildfire.

The Metro’s headline summed up the general feeling pretty well: “Panic Across London as People On Tubes are Actually Asked To Talk.”

Of course, meme after meme can be found on the hashtag’s Twitter search. Here are a few of the best:

If someone comes near me with a #tube_chat badge. pic.twitter.com/TO0FBeyyQg

— Elliot Hackney (@ElliotHackney) September 29, 2016

Aaah, poor Dunne. You should just come to Cape Town, dude!

[source:thedailybeast]