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AIBU?

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Original poster

Am I getting old or is the world becoming more inconsiderate?

110 replies

GeorgeA12 · 16/08/2025 18:47

Just been on holiday in UK desperately trying to relax from busy year. I just found people being so inconsiderate to their fellow human beings, was struggling to tolerate it all. Some examples:

  1. Person on the train talking loudly on the phone about her upcoming party. The rest of the people in the carriage pretty silent. Why couldn't she know how disruptive she was?
  1. I was kayaking in the sea. I kid you not, a person comes into the sea talking loudly making a video call for ten minutes.
  1. A family trying to make their kid go in the sea. The kid was screaming, not wanting to go in the sea. Went on for twenty mins. Was awful to hear.
  1. Took a bus ride. Walked towards the back of the bus and their is an aggressive looking dog sitting on a seat!
  1. Another bus ride and someone talking loudly about their friends shitting habits for all to hear.
  1. Took my mum out for a nice meal to a restaurant. Half way through the meal a family comes in with a dog. The restaurant is now dog friendly apparently. Sorry I don't want to eat my meal with a dog nearby without being told first.
  1. Another cafe. Three dogs in one person letting one of their dogs paw on the seats.
  1. Having a meal in a pub with my daughter. Parents letting their kids use their phones to watch videos for all to hear. Had to move.
  1. Coming home on the train. Someone playing radio 2 loudly on their phone speakers. Why not wear headphones, I dont want to listen to someone else's noise.

I'm getting to the point where I wish I was born in the early1900s, to avoid all the stress technology brings. I'm 50, just want peace and consideration is it to much to ask from others when out in public? Or am I just not used to how the world operates now?

OP posts:
HeadDeskHeadDesk · 17/08/2025 18:07

ThreeLocusts · 17/08/2025 16:53

Hi OP, I'm mid-fifties so liable to find things to complain about in 'the youth of today' - but I think this isn't just a question of different mores among young people. There definitely are changes, especially the much-mentioned forcing others to listen you your music/youtube video/telephone conversation, and it's not just young people doing it.

Pandemic hangover is plausible, but I suspect the main issue is smartphone- and social media-related. The constant availability of certain kinds of stimulus via smartphones makes people more dependent on them, and at the same time less attentive to what is going on among human beings around them, as distinct from going on on their screens.

It's often grating to be exposed to the resultant noises, but what I find most disconcerting about it is the self-involvedness of the people who do this, and the coarsening of social mores that these actions represent. It feels as if people really are becoming less able to see situations from others' points of view and see others' needs as equal to their own. Makes me wonder whether the term 'brain rot' is more than a joke.

totally agree.

huffdragon · 17/08/2025 18:34

EsmaCannonball · 17/08/2025 14:10

Apparently the police are looking to possibly charge the men who tackled the verbally aggressive, deranged flasher on the tube the other day. That pretty much sums up everything wrong in the country.

I've taken to wearing headphones and listening to audiobooks purely to drown out the noise of everyone else on public transport. Some people are so loud it doesn't always work. There was one woman switching her water bill to a new property on the bus a few weeks ago and the entire bus heard everything a fraudster or burglar would need to know about her, including all her bank details.

Nobody queues for a bus anymore. It's a scrum and a free-for-all. The concept of leaving the seats at the front for the elderly or disabled isn't upheld. Young, fit blokes are totally unembarrassed about taking up an entire seat at the front as a pensioner with a Zimmer frame struggles past them.

The thing that is really bothering me at the moment is walking. E-scooters, bikes, e-bikes, motorbikes; you might as well be walking on the road, not the pavement. You can't just walk along lost in your own thoughts, you have to be permanently vigilant and it's very annoying. I have never once seen the police do anything about this.

Dogs in restaurants doesn't bother me. In fact, I'd take my chances on a red setter serving up my food over a disgruntled waiter who hates humanity.

The man was mentally ill. You can’t play vigilante and beat up anyone who is behaving out of the norm.

EsmaCannonball · 17/08/2025 18:56

They didn't beat him up. They wrestled him off the train after he exposed his genitalia and shouted at people. Criminalising people who intervene means that next time the passengers will just have to suffer. Let's not forget the number of times seriously mentally ill people have committed terrible crimes. It just feels like the police are not only useless but are actively working against the interests of the public,

BlueJuniper94 · 17/08/2025 18:58

This is liberalism. The land of do what you want all the time. This is what we wanted. Enjoy the decline

materialgworl · 17/08/2025 19:01

User32459 · 17/08/2025 10:30

No such thing as peace in the UK now unless you live somewhere very isolated and stay there.

The island is overcrowded, inconsiderate and very noisy. And we import a million extra people every year.

haha of course it’s the bloody immigrants 🤣🫣 this is almost funny

Karistyleaftea · 17/08/2025 20:23

People are definitely less considerate in my opinion.
It does irritate me when people reach in front of your face at the supermarket , or they are pushing in when you are waiting to get served, music pounding out from cars at ridiculous levels, crazily inane conversations on speaker phone on the train. So many things.
I hate the smell of dogs in cafes when I am having food.
I was sitting on a bench at the beach recently and a dog scampered up to me and drooled all down my bare leg, it was horrible .
I too wish people would train their dogs properly.
I adore children but my goodness, the screamers now!

Finteq · 17/08/2025 20:31

YANBU

Person shoved past me on an Aeroplane, when I was on my own with my two kids trying to get them off the plane

Absolutely no point.

Then saw him the the passport queue acting like the perfect partner.

HeadDeskHeadDesk · 17/08/2025 20:54

BlueJuniper94 · 17/08/2025 18:58

This is liberalism. The land of do what you want all the time. This is what we wanted. Enjoy the decline

Absolutely spot on.

User32459 · 17/08/2025 21:47

BlueJuniper94 · 17/08/2025 18:58

This is liberalism. The land of do what you want all the time. This is what we wanted. Enjoy the decline

And criminals and anti-social people take advantage of soft liberals and they know their rights. Law abiding respectful people just have to suffer in silence because if they react then either they're the ones who'll get into trouble, beaten up or stabbled.

We're a lawless society that's drifting into anarchy.

MrsB74 · 18/08/2025 13:08

BoredZelda · 17/08/2025 12:48

When? When I looked at joining in the 90s it was 5’4 for women, 5’8 for men.

Show quote history

i agree, I also remember these rules being relaxed as well (maybe 90s?) so that those under 5’4 could join up. There was a tiny new recruit on the news!

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