In our contemporary culture,the prospect of communicating with-or even looking at-a stranger is virtually unbearable Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they fiddle with their phones,even without a 1 underground It’s a sad reality-our desire to avoid interacting with other human beings-because there’s 2 to be gained from talking to the strange r standing by you. But you wouldn’t know it, 3 into your phone. This universal armor sends the 4 :"Please don’t approach me." What is it that makes us feel we need to hide 5 our screens One answer is fear, according to Jon Wortmann, executive mental coach We fear rejection,or that our innocent social advances will be 6 as"creep,"We fear we’II be 7 We fear we’II be disruptive Strangers are inherently 8 to us,so we are more likely to feel 9 when communicating with them compared with our friends and acquaintances To avoid this anxiety, we 10 to our phones."Phones becom