Am I old or has shite behaviour become normal behaviour?

This! I’m holding up the traffic on the main rd because you’ve read that you now have right of way so you’ve decided to arrogantly schmoozy across the road like a disabled snail just because you can😡

Apart from the oaps, I still find most v grateful & at least gesture a thank you.

Maybe people have always been this selfish but they didn't have access the devices that enable them to ruin other people's lives quite so easily in the past?

Ive asked people before on plane and on the train ' "excuse me, do you mind using headphones please, its just its ever so loud"

Ive done it a few times and the person has just said sorry and turned it off or used headphones, and I tell them thanks and that i appreciate it.

I'm the same age and often dread my commute to and from work from everyone elses annoying noise.
Either watching stuff without headphones or watching stuff using headphones on such a high volume you can still hear about 5 rows away, having unbelievably loud phone or face time conversations. (I have to say I also find people tapping on a keyboard annoying but accept that's probably a me-problem)
A girl on the train recently spent about 20 min on the phone very loudly discussing (although it didn't appear the recipient of the phone call got much airtime) quite personal, rude and potentially offensive stuff.

However according to posters on other threads the solution is for me to go to a quiet carriage (well duh, my train doesn't have such a thing) or wear noise cancelling headphones myself.

Just spent two nights in hospital (antenatal ward) and a woman was watching TV with no headphones even after lights out - so incredibly inconsiderate!!!

This. It really is a fucking shambles.

People are just doing what the fuck they want, but they don’t like it when other people do what the fuck THEY want. Recipe for disaster.

I have had to tolerate MANY women playing music through their phone's speaker on hospital wards in the last few months.

I don't know if they're stupid or selfish or both but I wanted to lock them inside a chemical toilet and set fire to it.

I am not quite 40. DD is 4. She either wears headphones (I have the bandou ones for comfort) or does not have the sound on.
Similarly if we are scooting home then she walks & pushes her scooter in the shop.
I also commute and nothing annoys me more!

You know how MN always says if you want total quiet you need to move to the middle of a field somewhere? Well, I did. And I don't step foot on public transport.
Got some noisy bastard cows near me and there's a cockerel but that's about the worst of it.

Travelling, I've seen a really noticeable difference even internationally before vs after COVID. Before, it wasn't unusual to encounter a lone person with music/talk bleeding through (cheap) earbuds. And you definitely did get self-consciously antisocial types treating their devices like '80s boomboxes and intentionally playing music or whatever with no earbuds, but it wasn't THAT common and usually someone would complain. You'd often find people using their devices without headphones when there was a logical reason (e.g., multiple people on this end on a call on speakerphone, or showing a group a YouTube clip), but typically volume would go off or earbuds in when the need to share was finished.

Now, it's absolutely the norm to play anything you want with volume as high as you want, no earbuds/headphones, even if it's just you. I've frequently seen couples sitting next to each other in airport waiting areas not communicating, each blasting something different on a device. Nobody has aged THAT much in two years, so I'm guessing it's mostly the effect of deterioration of unused social skills and possibly some backlash against previous social norms. The more it becomes the norm the more rude, lazy people will do it.

In the case of the child, it's not great but at least it served a purpose. Given that it's a relatively casual environment likely the parents and the other diners were thinking that the music was preferable to the child crying/screaming.

Years ago I connected my Bluetooth to someone’s phone and played Barbie girl (I don’t think you can do this now) You can if they have their hotspot turned on AND haven't passworded it. But in a crowded place I'm not sure how you'd know which device to connect to; they probably don't have their network name set to "Inconsiderate Arsehole Blasting Crackly Crap".

People strolling across the road in front of vehicles which have to slow down really pissed me off too.
I feel like mowing the selfish buggers down

People listening to music or watching videos on public transport with no headphones - whhhyyyy?

Recently seen an increase in kids riding scooters round shops, from H&M to supermarkets. Not even slowly right beside the adult, but freely as if in the park.

Just seems in a rise of people thinking it's fine to be utterly selfish.

We had portable 'boomboxes' and the music was coming out of the headphones. I remember idiots with really loud music coming out of those crap sponge headphones.

I am the same age as you. Had my first child before iPads were a bloody thing. So for restaurants/planes sticking them in front of an iPad wasn’t a thing. Suffered a flight this summer listening to Alvin and the fecking chip monks. It is such an entitled thing to do in a public space. My husband bought me a really good pair of noise cancelling headphones as this crap behaviour really annoys me. You are not alone op. I would love to live on an island with only decent respectable people, with firm rules on acceptable behaviour. You could be my neighbour 🤣

Yanbu, people are becoming dickheads. at cinema today watching Paddington and a parent allowing their child to talk the whole way through the movie. Not only that but started many of the conversations, my 9yo was livid. I should have known when she sat down she made a big deal of him identifying the number and the letter.
Absolute gobshite, everyone there had their kids there no one thinks yours is cute

I have had exactly the same, child on plane and in cafe, it's considered normal now. I have said something about it and the noise has been turned down with lots of eye rolling

It's not just from individuals though, the noise output from shops, restaurants and bars is so loud, like a nightclub so you can't hear the person next to you. I was at the airport the other day and 3 eateries in a small, open plan space were all playing loud competing music, it was a cacophonie - painful! I couldn't sit there.

I have my nails painted and I am shocked at the amount of people sat with EarPods on having a full conversation whilst ignoring the nail artist. I come to have my nails done and think of it as some time away from work or being with the toddlers.
Yet someone needs to be shouting across the salon whilst they use EarPods and can’t hear anything but we hear their stupid conversation. I want to say - please can you stop talking so loudly on the phone .

Or people who bring their children into the salon and give them a phone to watch on full
volume.

I am 35 but this enrages me . It’s so rude to think people want to be subjected to this noise pollution. It’s bloody rude but it seems to be how it is .

I never knew anyone to use them without headphones though. Nothing like music played a full volume from phone speakers.

Sometimes I'm tired and can't be bothered to do anything but usually I ask people to turn it down or use their headphones.

I had to be asked myself once. I was using headphones but didn't realise that I hadn't pushed them into my tablet properly. I was mortified.

Yanbu. This is exactly as I find life now. It’s a fucking shambles.

I’m tempted to play some classical music at full volume on my phone when it happens! I choose the quiet coach on trains, and keep my fingers crossed. Even there it can be noisy. I am old!

When I was a teenager people had walkmen with loud irritating tinny music. Then the discman, then the iPod etc. The Walkman was around in the 80s.

And these adults are teaching their children to be equally rude.

YANBU and it's extremely rude but yes it's becoming the norm.

On the plane just ask the stewards to get the noise off. They will sort.