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On Prepositions

2018-07-31 · letter vlog · John · 3:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: History & curiosities) · mode: Personal essay · tags: civic or action cta

John walks through the maddening rules of English location prepositions (in, on, at) and argues that we are not 'on' our phones but 'in' them: a disembodied, thrilling, terrifying and weird space for which he lacks both understanding and language, more like a city than an island.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — QR-code shirt linking to voter registration; John changes into his standard polo

  • ★★ John shows a QR code on his shirt that takes viewers' phones to a website to register to vote. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John changes from the shirt into his standard two-button polo, enjoying the comfort of familiarity. (playful) — 00:00:04

00:00:10 — The weird rules of English location prepositions: in, on, at, and their exceptions

  • ★★ John says the general rule is that in is for big places, on for smaller places and at for extremely specific ones: in a country, on a street, at an address. — 00:00:22
  • ★★ John lists exceptions: you live in a house but at home; you can be at or in the airport but not on it unless you're Godzilla; in or on a plane, never at it. (playful) — 00:00:36
  • ★ John notes that although in is for large places, you can be in your airplane seat, one of the smallest places in the known universe. (playful) — 00:01:00
  • ★★ John says the words have other meanings: in can mark a change of state (break something in half) and on can describe a state (a car on fire). — 00:01:10
  • ★★ John says something happening on the body's surface usually takes on (tapped on the shoulder), beneath the skin in (shot in the shoulder), though being slapped in the face breaks the rule. — 00:01:33
  • ★★★ John calls English prepositions an altogether terrible system for expressing ideas, which he rarely notices because he grew up speaking English. — 00:01:48

00:01:58 — Not on the phone but in it: phone life as a disembodied space like a city; sign-off

  • ★★ John says 'on the phone' always bothered him: it once meant being on a call, but now covers texting, Instagram or Fortnite, and we are not standing on our phones. — 00:01:58 · Instagram

  • ★★★ John argues that whatever we do on our phones we are in the phone: not really in our physical space or with nearby people, but with others who are in their phones. — 00:02:21

    “You're in the phone.”

  • ★★ John says leaving his phone feels like getting out, not off; even as a kid on phone calls with friends he felt he was in a disembodied space with them. — 00:02:35

  • ★★★ John says that now, with so much more to do and so many more people there, being in his phone feels thrilling, terrifying, overwhelming and, most of all, weird. — 00:02:57
  • ★★★ John lacks the words for phone life and doesn't know whether understanding leads to language or the reverse; for life in his phone he has neither adequate understanding nor language. (unsure) — 00:03:08
  • ★★★ John says all he knows is that life on his phone feels much more like being in a city than being on an island. — 00:03:26

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description asks US adults to make sure they are registered to vote. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: preposition and postposition · smartphone

Also: English language · Fortnite · Godzilla · Instagram · linguistic relativity · QR code · voter registration

Also centred on smartphone: Is it All Hopeless?

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