Are people getting ruder and unfriendlier or am I just getting old and grumpy?

I have noticed this as well!!!! Before the pandemic I started several friendships with the other mums at school. After the pandemic we had to move and I thought it was just how this new school is but apparently it's the same now at our previous school. Nobody chats to anyone new. Just existing friends. As somebody without a bestie who's only existing friendships are occasional catch ups and am therefore v lonely, this makes me really sad. Interactions on the playground were very often my only adult interaction of the entire week, besides shop assistants

Some dog walkers! Went out for a stroll the other day along a public footpath and a couple refused to put their 2 large dogs on a lead despite me asking and despite one of the dogs circling, barking and jumping up at me.

They both had a right go at me for asking and were shouting it was their right to have their dogs off lead.

I was quite upset, though the next few people I passed did however put their dogs back on their leads.

Funny in my recent experience as an older lady driver it's the younger women who scream and mouth at me if they are thundering along. Pure entitlement coming through. And some men but never lorry drivers and I try to let delivery drivers get on their way because I know how many parcels they have to get through cannot be easy.
I had an incident last week where a bloke pulled out on me in his golf but didn't speed off and then started slamming on and waving his arms about .weird as I hadn't reacted to him pulling out on me he obviously saw me as an older (52) lone female driver and thought he could take out his miserable life on me. Culminated in him stopping in the road where he was going to turn right and not letting me past trying to intimidate me but an oncoming driver flashed him to turn and he ended up looking a dick and having to go.
No idea what his problem was. But I have had more incidents of road rage in the last couple of years than in the 30 years previous.

I was going to say we had some lovely friendly people serving us everywhere yesterday and the people volunteering in the lifeboat museum were so kind and helpful - it was in Redcar! Can't beat the north east.

Agree about sensory overload. It’s not just the noise, lights have also got brighter in the last ten years due to LED bulbs everywhere.

It’s the me me me culture that pisses me off. Plus customers who don’t seem to think shop workers are human.

Last year, I collapsed at work. Don’t remember what happened and feeling unwell before. I collapsed in part of a store with plenty of footfall. Customers were disgusted where I collapsed and tutted at my colleagues who attended to me. One customer almost put their foot on me. A colleague asked the vile man that’s not the way to treat a colleague.

I think a lot of it is population density, combined with poor UK housing. There's no way for people to get away from each other or enjoy their own private space.

Like how when you put too many chimps in a cage together they start to get angry and kill each other.

We don't have the population density of eastern countries yet, but we have a more individualistic culture.

The world’s gone to hell.

I've never known it so bad and I started waitressing at 13 and have done customer service on/off my whole life

No, I’m not BAME. That was mostly the community who expressed the hostility I mentioned. After 40 years there I became feeling less and less safe

Open hostility from who? Are you BAME?

I agree, everyone out for themselves and its a culture the government have sadly created.

Just before Christmas I moved from north London to the Isle of Man. The thing I immediately noticed was the lack of open hostility from complete strangers in public. People smile at you in the street. It’s a breath of fresh air

I think this is a big part of it. The sensory overload, the constant pressure to do several things at once, the feeling that everything is a battle and everyone else is a rival or a threat. And I do think covid exacerbated that.

I see this all the time on here people who say I only care about my own family . People have changed so much . It's heart breaking really , we don't like each other anymore .

I went to a cafe briefly yesterday and got some food to take out at around 5.30pm. When I was paying the lady at the till said "You know, you've been the most polite customer all day." I didn't do anything especially polite in the whole 5 minutes I was there.. in fact I barely spoke beyond saying "Hello, how are you?", "Could I please have two croissants." and "Thank you." when she handed it to me...

I make a massive effort with shop staff these days because I see so much rudeness. Music in public spaces, cafes, restaurants, pubs and out in public drives me nuts. I can’t bear it. I’ve walked out of several places recently because I can’t hear myself think. Same in supermarkets. I don’t want Abba or Beyoncé blasting out when I’m trying to decide what to cook for dinner. Everything feels like sensory overload these days and it’s really hard to get away from it. I wonder if it is having an adverse effect on other people too and they are more stressed and don’t realise it. Everything is amped up so we are too just to get through the day.

people in the UK have never been friendly

or good morning/be, thanks etc
The driving, if you sound your horn, just a light tap to let the vermin know that they just cut you up, they start ranting and raving, brake checks, getting out of the car etc. The good thing is these types in cars at times do pick on the wrong person/people and wlak back to their car with their tail between their legs😂

So much has changed since Covid, sometimes it seems there's another difficulty at regular intervals just adding quietly to the pile of things that have gone before, it all starts to get a bit much. Covid divided people, other people became a danger and some just haven't got over that and feel a certain hostility to others, they're happier in their own little world pretending other people don't exist.

This. In fact, I think people are in general are friendlier and politer.

I agree. My youngest ds wet himself while waiting for a ride at a theme park the other week. So I walked him back to the car park because he doesn’t normally wet himself anymore (so I didn’t take his bag with clothes in). He is only three and while walking back I can’t tell you how many strangers said “ew disgusting” as we walked by through the theme park on our way out.

I was surprised at the lack of compassion for such a small human.

I work in customer service, and I have this discussion with my colleagues a lot. I'm in my fifties, and I've worked in customer service my whole working life. People are without doubt, ruder and more aggressive than I've ever known. I don't know why. I'm an absolute delight to deal with on the phone, I always try my very best to resolve issues, and I go above and beyond as often as I can to help people. It makes no difference whatsoever. I'd say at least 60% of the people I speak to talk to me like absolute shit. It's so, so depressing.

I do think people are just too tied up with their own lives these days.

Not sure I'd be stating that things had changed so rapidly in 4 years tho, you've probably just got a miserable cohort with your DD's year.

Yes. It was an issue before Covid. Ime, I find it is definitely area dependent.