When did people turn into wolves?

[MillyVannily]

I live in a nice neighbourhood in the outskirts of London ... in recent months I started going on walks around to improve my fitness. OMG ... people are grumpy, stare away, God forbid it's someone I know they barely open their mouth to mumble hi. Today I saw my neighbour that literally was hiding behind her car so she doesnt say hi (we dont have a bad relationship). What's wrong with people?!?! I know times are tough and people have problems but it's just not normal to have this sort of hostile looking face while on the street! It's Christmas coming ffs aren't people in festive mood?

Is anyone noticing this or it's just my luck?

I may need to move away from London. I remember when I lived in Warwickshire people were much nicer. 🤣

I know all about Northerners. Game of Thrones* is one of my favourite books.

*technically A Tale of Ice and Fire....

Commuters in London are miserable, and no surprise- commuting can be horrible. But by definition, the bulk of commuters aren't actually Londoners! Many of them cone from the Home Counties, which really are an unfriendly shithole. So people come to visit London, get grumped at by commuters and go "Londoners are soooo unfriendly!" Meet actual Londoners in their London "villages", and they're as nice as anyone.

(Source: born and brought up in the Home Counties, lived in London for a decade)

Commuters in London are miserable, and no surprise- commuting can be horrible. But by definition, the bulk of commuters aren't actually Londoners! Many of them cone from the Home Counties, which really are an unfriendly shithole. So people come to visit London, get grumped at by commuters and go "Londoners are soooo unfriendly!" Meet actual Londoners in their London "villages", and they're as nice as anyone.

This, from a Londoner

This

My dog needs an hour's walk at lunchtime (I work at home). I often only have an hour between calls. I also like a break from talking if I've been on teams calls all morning. I like my neighbours but don't always have time to chat if I see them when I'm heading out with the dog. Other times I'm happy to chat so I probably come across as a moody cow.

People in the Home Counties are not full of grumpy people who are born and bred there. They will be a mix including a substantial proportion who’ve moved down / up to London to work and then moved out with their families. I’m London / Surrey borders and people are a great mix and not particularly grumpy. However since getting a dog this year I’ve encountered and met so many friendly people I otherwise wouldn’t have spoken to.
( still you’ve given everyone the Christmas gift of bashing London which we haven’t had for at least … 3 days )

I live in Oxfordshire, every F*cker says good morning on a specific pathway used a lot 🤣 I embrace it

I lived in London for a long time, I remember I had a fault on the line and the BT call centre person asked me if I could borrow a phone from the neighbour to check it wasn't a fault with the handset.

I said "This is London, I don't talk to my neighbours"

A. What's wrong with being grumpy? We all feel that way from time to time. The steeet is a relatively anonymous place where one is not required to make small talk generally.

B. I'm usually in my head thinking all kinds of things. I look quite severe when I'm like that but it's just my face, no reflection on anyone else.

C. I do greet people I recognise, and chat if they want to. Depends on whether I see them and they see me. Our area is busy.

D. Some people just don't 'see' you when they're not expecting to. I've frequently had to wave my hand and call out to my sil who lives close to us and it's not because she's trying to ignore me, she's known for it.

I haide from my neighbours, I'm autistic and find small talk torturous.

I’m a wolf. I will always be Wolves.

But aside from football, I’m a very cheery, smiling, good morning-y person.

Also it's about weight of numbers. In a city with lots of people, it would be weird to smile and nod at everyone, impossible in crowds. When I'm in a quiet place like out for a walk in the woods or in a village, people say hello to most people they pass. It's basic psychology. You can't judge whether people are friendly or not from meeting them at random.

I was struggling not to cough on the bus yesterday (packed bus, London) and the woman next to me started telling me she had similar and we had a little chat sympathising with each other.

I noticed this too, and I live in a place where lots of Londoners come to escape the city. I thought initially it might be me, but actually it’s them. Grumpy fuckers.

But in seriousness, yes I have noticed it, where I am outside of London. People are struggling. And I have nothing against London folk.

Where i live probably 80% of people are not born here and probably 70% are not originally from the UK - my neighbours are Nigerian, Polish, Indian, Bulgarian, Greek, Brazilian, Irish etc. I'm not saying it's related to where people are from, but i do think it's a regional culture and people sort of pick it up with time. BTW the elderly around are equally miserably looking which is a first, usually they are super friendly, no matter where you are.

This is what I mean ... it's a recent thing. Even during the pandemic when we were supposed to not talk to each other and keep distance, people looked happier somehow... maybe it's cost of living, maybe it's return to office ... who knows ...

I also noticed laden shelves and people wandering around without buying much when I went to Sainsbury’s to pick up some Christmas extras.

Some of the prices are extraordinary. The quality of some food is also so degraded these days - so much palm oil and shitty, cheap unhealthy filler ingredients. The pack sizes are so mean too.

There are a lot of factors that are making people sad, but I reckon there’s a real sense of the good times being over.

wolves are smarter and take care of their faMILYS
.stop saying wolves

If I was walking around my neighbourhood with my dog I would say something like 'hello, nice day' (or more likely 'rain forecast again later!) to people I pass. And I definitely speak to my neighbours. Again mainly about the weather.

In my local town centre I would pass the time of day with whoever was serving me, probably not random other shoppers unless they spoke to me first.

If was going into my nearest city centre I wouldn't look at anyone. Several reasons, numbers of people coming towards you, you have no idea what their reaction would be - some pretty dodgy people around. I would keep to myself.

Well I can’t comment about London, but I left DD sitting on a bench in ikea with the bags and came back with our hotdogs and a man was sitting on the end. I moved my bags and sat down. All good, there was plenty of room. He commented - good job you’re not a fat bird love, there’s some fat rough people about. I didn’t have chance to reply because his friend / relative piped up, there’s another bench over there if that helps you. I was too gobsmacked at A: the ‘fat bird’ comment and B: we were sitting there first. Whilst I would never expect DD to tell someone he couldn’t sit there, he could have accepted there was room for us all.
I ended up moving, still too shocked to say anything!

I moved to London years ago to escape the nosy, insular and casually sexist, racist and xenophobic Northern town I was living in, where people paid no heed to privacy or personal space and viewed doing, wearing, watching or buying anything which deviated from their extremely narrow 'norm' as grounds for sneering, mockery and derision.

I am very glad I did, since it's the friendliest and most welcoming place I've ever known.

You realise Cumbria isn't all hills, sheep and tiny villages? There are towns here and everything. With shops, stations and lots of people!

Is this yet another "why are all Londoners so awful and unfriendly" thread?

This. I then moved to a village in the midlands which, while superficially far friendlier in the sense of saying hello on the street, was much less inclusive and tolerant of any kind of difference.

Nope.

I've no idea. I suspect they're not very chatty.

When you do talk to people you get their life story. Most people are friendly but they zone out when walking around because they are going somewhere and that is their mission.