Increasingly hate sitting next to people

[Woollypullover]

and I don't know why.

Is anyone else like this? I'm BU and should be comfortable sitting next to people, shouldn't I? I never used to be like this.

This coming week, I wish I could avoid a trip to the theatre and lunch with a group in a restaurant because I don't want to sit next to anyone.

I even make excuses and turn up late, so I can sit on the end.

I'm BU aren't I?

I struggle to understand what is so tough and complex about going to the theatre- ita's a privilege in these times- unless you are ND in some way. But then MN is full of people who like to make their world smaller and smaller.
Carry on. I think YANBU but it's your life.

Sorry @Lentilweaver I didn’t explain myself well.

I am ND myself and my point is that modern life is so far removed from what was normal even a hundred years ago, that many more adults are struggling to cope.

There are many more people for a start, which doesn't help.

Are you willing to pay twice as much for double the space?

Not just more, but also more concentrated and not spread out which makes it even worse.

This isn’t the case in theatres though is it? Same number of seats in exactly the same proximity.

Perhaps it is more that after everyone's attention was drawn to 'social distancing' for a while, and people got used to having their own space and liked it, things that were previously seen as 'normal' now feel much more unpleasant.
I think I used to go along with being packed into theatre seats right next to other people, because it was just the done thing and no one questioned it. Being packed onto a commuter train in the morning, pressed right up against other people. Now I look back in disgust at those things, and wonder why I ever thought that was OK.
Sometimes you need that pause just to reflect and realise that things that were previously accepted as the norm aren't necessarily good. I was actually really surprised that anyone wanted to go back to that model after restrictions eased.

They aren’t bad though. I mean, more trains a busy times would be nice, but sitting next to someone in a theatre or at a dinner table? Disgusting? Really?

Yes, if you are sitting there for a while, all the air you are breathing in has just come straight out of their mouth. Seems equally as disgusting as sharing a toothbrush with them.

I also think it's strange to find sitting in the seat next to someone at the theatre disgusting and find it peculiar that anyone would still want to live like they did under restrictions.
Still, it's not anyone else's business if they want to make their world small, unless it causes problems for their families, especially their children.

😂🙄

I don’t think that’s necessarily true. The poor have always lived crammed together, regardless of population size. You had entire families living in a single room the way you still have families now crammed in refuges or hostels as temporary accommodation. I’m 52 and grew up poor in a tiny house, sharing a bed either with my aunt and grandmother or two of my sisters.

But this sums it up - cramming people together in small spaces is an unfortunate consequence of poverty and commonly leads to the spread of disease. It is not something to aspire to.

Who suggested it was? I was responding to a poster who was saying that overcrowding was a consequence of modern urban life. It isn’t.

Nope, nothing to do with covid. I hated being crammed in with other random strangers long before the lockdowns and social distancing. We can't keep blaming Covid for everything.

Only on this site would over 50% of respondents deem this attitude as “not unreasonable”.

Absolutely. It's only here that I see such a widespread aversion to other people.

Ah, OK - yes overcrowding has always been a necessity for the poor. Perhaps modern life has it spilling over into more places than just the living quarters. Or maybe the busy pace of life and societal pressures these days makes it harder to deal with all the people and noise.

But it's bias theory. If you go to a theatre, you won't be coming across people there who don't like being in close proximity to others.

Bloody hell.

Indeed.

Perhaps @Howmanymoredays would benefit from some therapy for her phobias.

Absolutely. It's only here that I see such a widespread aversion to other people

I agree @ilovesooty

I don't miss being packed in the tube like sardines, but I left that kind of commute over 40 years ago. I now live and work somewhere where the only viable way to get to work is to drive, so I have swapped my sardine tube commute for an M1/M62 traffic jam commute.

Ha ha, think about it next time you are sitting next to someone particularly unappealing on the bus (Or perhaps don't!)
It makes it worse when you see people vaping and can literally see the cloud of air leaving their mouth and someone else breathing it in. Along with whatever other grime left their airways. Lovely!

The rest of the time it isn't visible, but still happening, just the same. I think they made some advert a while back where they visualised people's breath as murky clouds which lingered around the room.

You've articulated exactly how I feel.

I meant I never hear people talking like this in any of the circles I move in. Not all of them by any means are theatre goers.
Mind you, people I know usually talk to their neighbours and answer their doors and phones as well.

Have you ever thought of getting one of these?