People seem angrier somehow

I would suggest less secret thinking

Maybe CoVid. But I think this feeling of aggression or poor social mixing is something to do with social media. That divides, keys people up into little sections, and spends a lot of time telling you certain sections of society are this and that, not like you, and so the template is aggressive interacting or an anxious one.

Psychologically being engaged all the time like this where you might have a device in your pocket telling you undiluted messages about other people, possibly hateful about them, is the extra thing to me which has changed. It is new. And I think probably it accounts for a lot of the hostility described.

Wow I'd have said a huge thank you to him!

I've not noticed it at all, it's just confirmation bias for your own state of mind. Start noticing the good stuff

I was just about to say that am I the only one who hasn’t noticed when you posted that.

Things I do notice - my brilliant next door neighbour who is just wonderful.
My other half’s grandchildren who view the world as a playground. They are enthusiastic about everything.
The daft voice notes I send to an elderly friend - she calls them Peggy’s Podcasts.
And there as still things I love to do - send written cards and notes. Good manners. A crisply ironed tea towel.

I've not noticed it at all, it's just confirmation bias for your own state of mind. Start noticing the good stuff

@PeggyMitchellsCameo

I think lockdown influenced us all, and dumbed us down.

I have no doubt that lockdowns didn't help, but all the problems mentioned on this thread were happening before lockdowns. I think Covid accelerated the decline, but certainly didn't cause it.

Yup, I'm pretty sure that the crap customer service these days is why so many customers get angry and abusive. It's a two way street.

My OH has terrible trouble every sodding month getting his chemotherapy prescription - between the oncology dept and the pharmacist, they manage to screw it up almost every month, always blame each other. Last month he spent hours on the phone being passed from pillar to post trying to get them to raise the prescription and then chasing the pharmacy. He's had too many wasted trips to the hospital pharmacy only to find it's not ready, not been raised, not been approved, etc. He's had the same chemo package for five years now. After phone calls over 3 days, the pharmacy finally told him it was ready for collection, so he went through to get it. It wasn't ready! He hit the roof at them! There's only so much crap customer service you can put up with. Then he overheard one of the pharmacy assistants obviously on the phone to the oncology dept trying to expedite it, saying something like "there's this old git kicking off" - he hit the roof again as it was THEIR fault not his. Finally got the pharmacist himself out of his cubicle to come and sort it out as no one else was remotely bothered!

Tried to organise some replacement wheels in our local Volvo dealership. The service receptionist hadn't a clue and was clearly floundering, so we suggested she got someone from the parts department. Lots of huffing and eye rolling and "I know what I'm doing" attitude. After about an hour she gave us a written quote for what we were asking for - it was for 19 inch wheels whereas our car has 18 inch wheels - she knew it was 18inch as we'd already told her that and it was on the screen as she had all our car details on her system. If we hadn't noticed, they'd have ordered the wrong wheels and we'd have wasted a day of our time taking the car in on a fruitless errand. When we pointed it out to her, of course it wasn't her fault, it was the system, apparently we'd not told her the right size etc. In the end, we just walked out and won't be going back there!

I went out over the weekend and all I saw was people in very dark clothing. Everyone in trainers. All looking at their phones while they are walking.
Saw one child in a pram with a phone on a game, about 18 months old. Being pushed by a mum also on a phone. Both in their own worlds.
Went into a supermarket no staff on the floor, nobody on the tills, I was in and out and didn’t speak to a soul.
I can remember this time of year when I was growing up. Going into town dressed up. Going excitedly from shop to shop. I think my mum knew every shop assistant in every store, which she did all of her life, because when she died I went into a few and told them.
Even if you do get an assistant you just tap a card and go.
I think lockdown influenced us all, and dumbed us down.

Too many people
Lack of enforcement of "poor" behaviour whether immoral or illegal
Roads are too busy and badly maintained, too many roadworks doing nothing
Public transport is crap
The NHS is crap
Most public services are crap
Most businesses and customer service is crap
Taxes are higher than ever
Wages aren't keeping up with cost of living
Shopping is now a miserable experience as most is owned by foreign billionaires
Basically, the joy of life is being sucked out by lots and lots of different aspects
It's no surprise that people are less friendly and amenable.
Not to mention the future looks even more bleak.

I have noticed this too and I wonder if maybe a lot of people are still dealing with trauma from living through lockdowns. PTSD causes anxiety and heightens fight or flight response and would definitely account for a higher level of aggression.

Is it really over crowding though? Look at Japan etc - much more overcrowded in the big cities than we are and generally impeccable manners, hardly any violence etc. I wonder what’s the difference going on there. It must be a cultural thing, surely..

Was the popular tourist area London? If so, never look friendly in London.

But yes, people are stressed and wrapped up in their own worlds. Try not to take it personally.

I convinced ds 1 to pop out with us yesterday he is 15 lanky and awkward in himself two women were walking down the path towards us he moved right over onto the grass out of their way me and ds2 moved over but not as "far" but still gave them room to get past the comments they gave "he didn't need to move THAT far" "we arnt taking up the ENTIRE path" (they were) FFS it's a teenager with manners! Do you know how rare that is at the moment? Why were they so cross?

Add rude, self absorbed, selfish and entitled to your angry and throw in a bit of manipulative into the mix too.

Not surprised you find people angry with you. They probably mirror your behaviours, if you cannot make a simple point without swearing. Perhaps, take a look at yourself to answer your own question.

On the topic of resources, look up supply and demand. It’s a very simple concept.

100%. Just this weekend:

-walking along a busy high street, female jogger going at full speed bumps into me and shouts “BITCH!” at me. She was the one who bumped into me and it wasn’t even that hard of a bump, we just brushed shoulders;
-man refusing to take “no” as an answer when pharmacist refused to give him a restricted medication, security had to get involved;
-another man at John Lewis click & collect didn’t say “hi” or even take his AirPods out, just shoved his phone with the collection code in the lady’s face.

It’s definitely getting worse.

I’ve noticed this. I do try to be kind to people, and not rude but I’m exhausted half the time because I can’t sleep thanks to perimenopause insomnia. We are one pay cheque away from drowning. I’m a busy fool a lot of the time. I can’t keep on at the pace I am. I’ve got teens and elderly parents to manage. I need a break, financial lifeline and some inner peace - and no one is coming to help me achieve it. So many people I know are the same. It’s like a tinder box. However, we are infinitely more fortunate than the vast majority in the world and I try to remind myself this often.

Driving is becoming more aggressive and less safe.

I've had two this weekend. One where I was driving in a straight lane and a car coming out of a petrol station, looked at me then drove straight out, forcing me to swerve & emergency stop. They were laughing as they did it. Two men in their 20s.

And coming home tonight in the dark, I had to come through a flooded road. I slowed down, put my hazard lights on and crawled through at a steady speed. The car behind got so close I couldn't see his head lights in my rear view.

I pulled a bit ahead of him and dried my brakes gently, as per the highway code and he became very aggressive beeping and flashing and driving so close I thought he would make contact.

Men have so much aggression and no outlet for it other than bad driving and threatening people. I'm single but I actively avoid men now unless in a work situation. They pose too great a risk. It's very sad.

I agree with this too. And it's worse where I live in Canada having been legalized a few years ago. People believe that because they legalized it, it must be harmless.

I think that it's the withdrawal from in person interactions.

More and more people avoid as many interactions as possible, they do everything online, they don't want to call anyone on the phone, they are upset if anyone drops by unexpectedly or if a stranger knocks at the door, they don't want to talk to a cashier so use a self-check out.

It's all added up and it got worse during covid.

Young people have almost no experience of managing relationships and interactions in a normal way as they have all been mediate by tech, or managed by their parents.

People are now like animals that are raised away from others of their species, who struggle to know how to interact. You see dogs and horses like this sometimes, they are often inappropriately aggressive when they are in the company of others.

I have definitely noticed over the last few years that people are becoming ruder and more inconsiderate. As a disabled person,I find it rather demoralising the way so many people are so quick to take advantage of the fact that I am slower than them,e.g. barging in front of me when I'm trying to get on a bus,jumping to a newly opened till in a shop even though they were behind me. And getting impatient with me because I take a nano-second too long to move aside when they say 'excuse me' or delay them by 2 seconds getting off the bus.