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Ending The Great Airplane Seat Debate

2020-02-14 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Economics) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, self promotion

Prompted by 49 Dear Hank and John emails and a viral recline video, Hank explains that airplane seats shrank through commodification and argues that close quarters with strangers expose small differences in understanding; the fix is to accept disagreement and assume good faith.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — 49 airplane-seat emails, the recline debate, the viral video, Hank's long legs

  • ★★ Hank says Dear Hank and John has received 49 emails about airplane seats: armrests, plugs, talkers and, above all, whether to recline. — 00:00:00 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★ Hank sums up the recline debate: one half says it's my seat with a button so I can recline; the other says the space is mine and coming into it is a little rude. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says the debate was inflamed this week (week of 10 February 2020) by a video that is a strong contender for the most annoying thing he has ever seen. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank, being long, says that when someone reclines into his space he sometimes has to rearrange himself or gets his leg pinned to his chest. (playful) — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Hank asks before reclining; seats shrank from 36 to about 31 inches through commodification

  • ★★ Hank says he likes to recline sometimes, so he asks the person behind him first, and if they say no, that's okay. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Hank says that over the last 20 or 30 years seat spacing shrank from about 36 inches to about 31 on average and as little as 28. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says the shrinkage was achieved by making seats thinner and more uncomfortable and by reducing the space in front of passengers' faces. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says this lets airlines fit more seats and sell more, cheaper tickets, because price comparison sites make airlines extremely price competitive. — 00:01:38
  • ★★ Hank says the only good news is that denser seating makes planes more carbon efficient per passenger mile, good for the planet by accident. — 00:01:38
  • ★★ Hank calls it an effect of the commodification of the airplane seat without regard for its quality, the fault of airlines, Priceline.com, himself and all of us. — 00:01:38

00:02:07 — Strangers in close quarters disagree; accept it and assume good faith

  • ★★★ Hank says close proximity with strangers reveals slight differences in understanding that cause real disagreement, and as we share space with strangers less, we handle that conflict worse. — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Hank says that without good ways to resolve conflict or handle imperfect situations, people end up angry, irrational and going viral on Twitter. — 00:02:36 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank offers a simple solution for viewers to repeat: I disagree with people about airplane seats and that is okay; they understand the world differently. — 00:02:36
  • ★★★ Hank says that when someone asks him a favor he will take a breath and assume good faith, even if annoyed or thinking them dopey and entitled, because society must function. — 00:03:04
  • ★★ Hank adds that he cannot truly know the other person's story. — 00:03:04

00:03:33 — Sign-off; March tour dates for Dear Hank and John and The Anthropocene Reviewed live

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says that refusing to stop reclining when asked, as in the viral video, is definitely impolite. — video description
  • ★★ The description says the man's jiggling and punching of her seat shows a lack of coping skills that boggles Hank's mind. — video description
  • ★★ The description says reclining is a choice but zero sum: reclining takes someone else's space. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank understands reclining can be annoying but is sometimes necessary. — video description
  • ★★ The description says many imperfect situations are caused by others; like storms or illness, differences of understanding should be seen as unavoidable imperfections, not flaws. — video description
  • ★★ The description says treating every situation as a battle means winning more battles but constantly losing them; better not to be in one. — video description
  • ★ A channel comment says Hank mispronounced Carmel, Indiana (it is CARmel); Hank replies thanks to a viewer's correction. — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • Hank explains why reclined seats pin his long legs. — 00:00:29

    “I'm almost always wearing bulky hiking shoes because I am a dad.”

  • Hank asks the person behind before reclining, with one exception. — 00:00:58

    “Sometimes it's a child that I don't ask. Cause you're a child.”

  • Hank lists the reasons to assume strangers' good faith on planes. — 00:03:04

    “And because if we cannot share the metal skybird, what can we share?”

  • Hank plugs the live tour shows. — 00:03:33

    “The events are MC'd by a Minotaur, what else could you ask for?”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: airline seat · principle of charity

Also: Projects: Dear Hank and John · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Organizations: Albion College · Priceline.com · Twitter

Concepts: carbon footprint · climate change · commodification · viral video

Places: Ann Arbor, Michigan · Carmel, Indiana · Columbus, Ohio

Only in the description or credits: zero-sum game

Also centred on principle of charity: Beckoning Lovely · An H of G

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