To think so many people have main character syndrome these days

Can’t you, I dunno, use your eyes??

Honestly op, I think you just might not like people very much.

Well I would never talk loudly on the phone on public transport, but I think it’s fine for people to have fun and laugh with friends in social spaces.

I get you. I prefer travelling alone so I can quietly tuck myself in on the train. I also don't wear earphones, I feel I need to be aware of my surroundings. I've even declined calls and told them I'm on a train and will call back later. I just hate the thought of people hearing my conversation and feeling like I'm being listened to actually makes me answer differently as well as if I'm on show😂 I almost admire those who go about life not caring.

On the noise: I think people’s hearing has deteriorated significantly since I was a young adult. I have always had good hearing and rarely found myself in environments 20 years ago where people were speaking too loudly. Even pubs seemed less loud, but shops, cafes, trains, buses, definitely. Now I encounter people who speak very loudly many times a day. At work, I’m shocked by how often younger colleagues say that they find someone who speaks at a normal volume in meetings inaudible. AirPods have a lot to answer for.

I think they should bring back trains with those little compartments à la Harry Potter.

Much nicer to choose a small compartment and avoid most people.

Crikey, I thought I was getting a bit intolerant these days but I really don't recognise this world you're all up in arms about apparently all the time.

I use trains and cafes and public spaces but my senses aren't assaulted like this.

I witness my fair share of knobery but these individuals or groups stick out like a sore thumb.

I'm quite pleased to discover I'm actually quite laid back 😃

I find it is older men, retired but still wanting to feel important, so I imagine they pop to the office now and again to remind themselves that they are a somebody, making VERY loud phone calls where they boss their wife or tradespeople about. Last week I sat aghast while a man ordered his wife "you have that ready for me when I get home and make sure you've packed xyz and then get my blah blah....I will be back at 8, pick me up outside the station". No please, thank you, how was your day love. Just barking orders and it was definitely his wife!

Another time someone trying to project manage a plumber from the phone and ordering them about too. If I had been the plumber I would have opened up all the valves and left.

Okay, people being inconsiderate cunts on public transport should obviously be put before a firing squad, but surely everyone is the main character in their own life? If you see yourself as nothing more than the fat best friend or comic relief then you need to step up.

Agree just put some headphones on

I’m a bit confused (it’s been a long day and I’ve had a wine so I may be a bit confuddled) but why does listening to music mean you can’t be aware of people around you?

I travelled to and from London on the train this week, couple of hours each way. It had been a while since I’d been on a train. Journey in was rammed and I was lucky to have a seat. I was trying to work and the young man sitting behind me proceeded to make phone call after phone call at full volume, all work calls, all punctuated with yeah buddy and right bro etc. it was like that Dom Joly sketch. I could have cheerfully throttled him after a while. Such a relief when he got off.
And everyone seemed to be coughing.
But at least I had a seat.

I had to move seats this morning because some family behind me were giggling, shouting, blowing raspberries and head butting the back of my seat.

A large number of people seem to have no idea how to behave appropriately in a shared public space

Im not able to blow my nose. It was cauterised as a child and it went wrong, and I cannot blow it. I try hard not to sniff but currently have a cold and it’s unavoidable at times. I don’t commute but am sometimes in public… I’m not sure this alone makes someone a knob. I try hard not to do it!

But perhaps I am an unhygienic knob 🥴

Usually ends in hocking on the platform when they get off 🤢

I really notice this as a primary school teacher. So many children now seem incapable of being part of a group - even during the register or really simple circle games, a significant proportion seems to feel the need to do something to take the limelight, usually some kind of silly and / or disruptive behaviour. It drives me mad and I'm sure it wasn't like this a few years ago.

Literally screaming! And they didn't get thrown out? Really??

I think social media has convinced many people that the world revolves around them.

How much they believe this appears to be inversely proportional to their intelligence; people who are well informed, think and rationalise are able to understand the world outside their "bubble" involves a lot more than them but others do not.

These are the people who think their knowledge from Facebook, Insta, etc means their opinions carry the same worth as evidence from experts with years of study and research under their belts

I learned two things from commuting for 40 years. One was where the doors of the train would likely be, depending on the speed of the train entering the station.

Number two was how to enter a kind of self hypnotic trance that excluded everyone else in the carriage.

Both things saved my sanity.

Totally agree. It’s worse in groups as well- my mum and I were trying to walk through a coffee shop from our table at the back to the front door and a running group had just arrived. None of them moved to the side or made any effort to let us past in a small shop. We had to ‘sorry’ ‘excuse me’ ‘could you just’ our way past 15 odd people stood stock still chatting as though we were in the way. I could have screamed by the end!