Imagining the lives of strangers and empathising

I've done this all my life but I recently watched the spike jonze film her again and the main character described doing it too so thought it'd be interesting to see how normal it is,

As part of trying to get out of my cynical and almost nhialistic thinking patterns one thing I do is sometimes try to see people as more than passing strangers, in my town you leave the house and your eyes stay glued to the floor or by our phones, hundreds of people too busy getting on with their lives to give a second thought to the person passing them, of course there's nothing wrong with that, its life, I'm not some head in the clouds guy who thinks we should all be friends but when I started to feel detached it wasn't helping.

Occasionally when I go for a walk if I'm feeling melancholic I people watch as I go, I see someone pass and try to see them as more than just a person passing as I'm going about my life, I wonder how they feel about life, are they happy? Do they have too many regrets? I wonder how many memories bring the person joy, or sorrow, I see a couple and wonder how they met, where they think it will go and what are they both hoping for,

I'm not sure if its because I miss studying psychology and body language or because sometimes its hard to remember that we are all caught up in our own lives, that people we don't know are more than just there in our vision as we go on our day and how many memories they hold, so I like to remember, to take time out to occasionally wonder about a passing stranger.

So does anyone else do anything like this, and IIN?

Kingofcarrotflowers