In Toronto, one man and his glasses are making the city a friendlier place by wishing people a great week, or even just outrightly declaring to whoever he sees that they make the world a better place.
Minjae Cho is once just like thousands of other Torontonians: he took the bus and the subway, went to work, and was lonely.
Now, he’s one-in-a-million: a full-time influencer who’s received praise from the mayor, the head of the Toronto Transport Corp. (TTC), and has 36k Instagram followers. His methods are simple: being courageous in his kindness, wishing people well, spreading amiability, and brightening up Toronto one bus ride at a time.
“It started at a time when I was in a lonely disconnected part of my life where I wasn’t seeing that many people. I wanted to push myself to show up more openly in everyday life with social interactions, and to rebuild my social confidence,” Cho told CTV News Toronto.
“What I’m doing is harmless… I’m just saying, ‘Have a nice day.’ I’m not pranking people. Most people see my effort and my courage and respond positively.”
He captures all his interactions with Meta glasses—less intrusive than a phone camera—which often end in smiles, laughs, even hugs; even tears. He’s been told his outreach has helped people get through tough times, or even avoid making life-changing decisions for the worse.
The TTC drivers recognize him and are happy to have him on board.
“Everyone could use a little more joy in their life, including on their commute, and these posts certainly convey that sentiment,” TTC CEO Mandeep Lali said in a statement.
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The videos on his Instagram account, under the handle Magnetic MJ, are introspectively interesting. You can so clearly taste the tension at times in the air when Cho is wishing someone a good day who seems reluctant to look up from their phone and acknowledge his existence. You almost feel relieved when they do look up, shake his hand and smile, and you get the feeling that if that very person were watching a video of Cho talking to someone else, they’d get the same feeling.
Mayor Olivia Chow felt that Cho is doing the work of thousands, saying when asked about his videos that if everyone did what he does to just one person, on one bus ride, once a week, the city would feel a lot more like a neighborhood.
WATCH Cho at work…
SHARE Cho’s Mission With Your Friends On Social Media…