People talking to you in public

[Mummybasketball]

I was eating a breakfast by myself, head buried in my phone and someone comes up to talk to me as e cafe had been done over and looking posh.

Aibu by thinking he’s a rude one?

Urgh I wouldn't have been pleased either OP. I think you can generally tell by someone's body language if they're up for a chat and he ignored this and invaded your space anyway.

I sit with headphones in and head down in a book, still getting people wanting to chat inane bullshit and disturb me.

I think maybe you need to move back to where you came from. Sounds perfectly normal to me.

@CovidDoesNotExistDuh

I sit with headphones in and head down in a book, still getting people wanting to chat inane bullshit and disturb me.

Likewise. Really annoying. I often watch training videos etc when on a train or sat on a park bench or whatever. Earphones in to listen to it and video on the phone or tablet screen. There's always "one" who disturbs me to talk nonsense. I have to pause the video, remove the earphones, just in case they're wanting to say something important, but invariably it's just small talk bollocks.

READ THE SIGNALS! Head down, no eye contact, earphones in, reading/watching something, means I'm not interested in idle chit chat! How hard can it be!

I have had too many instances in my life of entitled men demanding my attention like this when I am busy doing something else. And frequently, what I thought would be a brief/casual interaction turned into something more unpleasant. This used to happen a lot more when I was young but still occasionally occurs now.

Just the other day one of them sidled up to me & tried to strike up a conversation about something, when I was walking (fast, eyes looking ahead) down the street. Because I had somewhere I wanted to go. I refused to slow down or respond so, cue a hostile response and accusations of unfriendliness etc. I had crossed the street before I could hear it all.

So I'm afraid I am deeply suspicious of unsolicited conversation attempts now, and I don't care who thinks me rude. Why is it a woman's job to look after men's feelings?

It is odd because I am generally happy to engage with people, male or female, say in a queue or when someone is obviously asking directions etc but I know what I am not comfortable with. I just follow my gut instinct about people these days and if an interaction feels wrong, it often is wrong.