Picture me, sitting in the middle seat on a United flight from New York City to Los Angeles. It’s a day flight, without a single cloud on the horizon. Our Boeing 747 is effortlessly gliding through the air at 20,000 feet over the barren, desert landscapes of New Mexico and Arizona. In my under-spaced economy seat, I am contorting myself in an attempt to enjoy the scenic spectacle playing outside the window without bothering my neighbor, the occupant of the window seat. A short, scruffy looking man with a baseball cap, staring into a bottomless tablet.

After a slight turn of the plane, light from the sun starts reflecting from the fuselage through the window and onto the screen of this man’s iPad, obscuring his view and hindering his ability to play his video game. The man, clearly annoyed at having his technological opium obstructed, violently shuts his window, depriving me of the view, and snapping me out of a particularly enjoyable reverie.