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.
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
It's been over 40 years since I last stepped onto a school bus, but it was always a raucous place, requiring bus drivers to be fairly strong authority figures to keep the kids in their seats. I wonder if it's like a tomb now, with all heads bowed over their phones.
I can't even begin to imagine the hell that telepathic like electronic message services provide children in these environments. It was bad enough when there was at least the possibility of moderation by adults.
The thing is if you saw someone back then who did not put the paper or book down while say, crossing the street, going up the stairs, using an escalator, using a urinal, ordering from a cashier, picking up takeout, every waking moment there was, you'd assume they had some sort of pathology going on.
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