What happened to being polite? Did it die with knights, shot in the breastplate at the advent of gun powder? Or are people just saving it for a particularly rainy day? I mean, is it just me or are people getting more and more rude by the day?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve held open a door (for men and women) and not gotten any acknowledgment at all. Not a head nod, not a smile, not a thank you, just a brisk walk as if it’s my job to hold the door open for people.
Rudeness seems to be everywhere. From road rage to cussing in public like it was some dive bar, people just don’t seem to care.
But the main culprit creating rude behavior in America is cell phones – and their owners. If you knew how many people held up fast food lines by yakking away into their cell phone, oblivious to the person at the window trying to get their attention (and money), you might not be so rude to the person at the window when it was your turn.
In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll, 70 percent of Americans said we’re more rude than we were 20 or 30 years ago. I believe it. People just don’t care. They blast tiny green spotlights into your retinas at the movie theater as they text. They refuse to tell the person on the other side of the phone, “One second, I’m at the cash register.” And if you go to a restaurant, you’ll see people talking on phones in the presence of real people with whom they can speak.
So I present to you some rules, especially given how much rude behavior is a direct result of cell phone usage: