Do you think people are getting ruder?
Posted by moomeymoo@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 49 comments
Not sure if I’m getting older and noticing it more or if it’s getting worse but since Covid it just seems like Brits are getting ruder and more unfriendly. It also seems like kids are getting worse behaved.
I don’t know if it’s related to Covid and the mental health impact of that and/or whether the cost of living worries are making it worse.
If you think people are getting ruder, why do you think that is?
TentativeGosling@reddit
Wife and I were discussing this earlier, after going to the cinema to watch the new Mandalorian movie. Woman with three kids were sitting near us, and one of the kids spent the first quarter of the movie with their phone lit up. When they started playing noises from the phone, I told them to shush, and to their small credit, they did (and put the phone away for about half the movie, before getting it back out again in the last bit but with no sound).
UK1273chatter@reddit
No doubt about it. Covid, social media and reality TV. The way kids are raised also with phones and ipads shoved in their faces.
Amazing-Heron-105@reddit
I feel like people of a certain age have always said things like this. I don't notice people being any different.
Such_Significance905@reddit
It’s genuinely really tough to say.
On one side, you have the evidence of your own eyeballs.
On the other side, I think you could’ve asked this question for the last 200 years and a positive answer.
newbracelet@reddit
I had a lecturer at uni (historian) who 'paired' newspaper articles as a bit of fun. He had a whole load about students causing chaos on the bar street in the 18c and modern day.
OldRecommendation513@reddit
Cost of living and COVID caused this…
WhaleMeatFantasy@reddit
That’s funny. Neither of those turned me into a cunt.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
You mean lockdown not COVID
watchingonsidelines@reddit
I’d say COVID - lockdown was a lot of it, but not entirely it, for example the awful harassment and attitude received caregivers and response staff because due to their need to work with the people who had COVID
TermAggravating8043@reddit
Yes. We’ve lost the village mentality. Now it’s everyone for themselves and it’s not my job to go out of my way to help a stranger in need.
Where families used to help each other and sympathise with those in harder or darker times, now it’s “well you choice that, why should I waste energy on you”
Just yesterday their was a post on here asking about the worst kind of parents. One of the top Posts was from a bus driver snd shop assistant who point out it’s not their job to help police kids. It’s not no, but it’s supposed to be your duty toward the community to help bring up the next generation. So you either back up the parents or stfu.
This is why kids grow up with no respect for others or anyone in authority, why should they? If your not going to do your part towards the community, why would you expect them to grant you basic decency and manners when they grow?
Everyone wants the village, no one wants to be the villager
Glad-Feature-2117@reddit
While I agree with you to a point, at least part of the reason people don't get involved any more is because they risk the parents of the children they're trying to correct making a complaint about them or even turning up at their door. Same with teachers - when they try to enforce discipline, parents don't back them up like they used to, but make excuses or outright accuse teachers of bullying or lying (I'm not a teacher, but I've heard lots from friends who are!).
TermAggravating8043@reddit
That is a good point, when did Parents stop backing up the other positions of authority.
Glad-Feature-2117@reddit
Gradually, but it definitely started before COVID. And, of course, it's not all parents, or even most, but it's a sizable minority.
Sea_Influence7197@reddit
There seems to be a lot more egocentricity these days. I think this is fuelled by social media and the loss of face to face connections.
SallyJaneCooper@reddit
It's not covid. It's generations of lazy parenting.
Unhappy-Giraffe-563@reddit
Lots of new arrivals in the past 10 years that don’t have the same British courtesy and manners as we would expect.
necronomicoder@reddit
Absolutely disagree, in fact the locals are the worst of the lot of them here in London, was following two council estate scrots to the train: littering, shouting, swearing, bullying, then jump the styles. Let's not make an excuse for them.
Unhappy-Giraffe-563@reddit
When have council estate youths not been known for being troublesome?
Natf47@reddit
Found the reform voter
VarangianWRLD@reddit
Only interpersonally.
People flaking on plans, I have seen a massive increase.
Ghosting has also become the norm in the dating world too. I've said essentially thanks but no tha ks after a few first dates recently. Was a bit uncomfortable but would rather be honest than leave someone in the dark hoping they'd get the point.
crooked_magpie@reddit
It’s getting worse, not cause of Covid but cause people can’t be arsed to parent properly. Rudeness comes in because kids aren’t disciplined and boundaries not reinforced to stop bad behaviour in younger generations.
Older generations, people seem more entitled. I think social media is partially to blame. Propaganda from politics makes people angrier and more polarised.
Natf47@reddit
It's impossible to say for sure but I do believe that since COVID people care less about what others think. Influencers took off massively since that time and people began doing more and more outrageous things to top each other.
There's some incredibly toxic people influencers creating content that children are watching, that their parents don't know their watching or sometimes don't even care they're watching. Leading to kids not understanding the social norms that most of us have grown up with.
Obviously the internet cannot be the blame for everything but children left unchecked with the internet is hugely damaging, I've seen this first hand through the work I do.
Even for adults especially in an age where it's hard to understand what the truth is about any given topic.
Avacado7145@reddit
Overpopulation. Capitalism out of control.
West_Supermarket1724@reddit
I believe it’s because of social media and also how kids feel they need to grow up and mature quickly. It’s not good seeing even adults on their phones or with earphones in, I remember seeing a woman with a pram and a toddler but she had earphones in
Amddiffynnydd@reddit
If leaders and celebrities and princes turned out to be arsehole / cun** / paedophiles that lie, cheat and steal…. Is the wider public just reflecting them or do they reflect society?
Similar_Quiet@reddit
People have been moaning about kids behaviour since the ancient Greeks.
I think a lot of people are stressed with modern life. The negative impacts of social media. People moving around more and being less rooted in community. It comes out on other people.
Amddiffynnydd@reddit
The acceptance of hate and bigotry - no challenge allowing people to behave the way they are….
watchingonsidelines@reddit
I find rudeness to take a few forms:
People don’t take responsibility for things they way they used to, in many ways, like they litter casually, or they don’t don’t return their tea mug to the dishwasher at work, or they leave a mess in a public restroom.
People don’t use their manners, don’t hold doors open, dont thank bus drivers or shop keepers, don’t know how to use a knife and fork, don’t excuse themselves when they burp.
anxious_and_tearful@reddit
Social media everyone is so self absorbed! There’s a lack of socialising in real life everyone’s on the phones!!
Latte-Addict@reddit
Yep, you too! And me!! :)
Doomergeneration@reddit
100%, so many people just seem to be horrible out and about, it’s hard to explain but it just feels like a mood shift that people are naturally rude and offish to strangers.
visitingshortly@reddit
Well yeah we have stopped being a high trust society with strong cultural values and firm law enforcement/judicial sentencing.
That will drive culture to be worse and in turn people to be less polite and considerate of one another.
IamNATx@reddit
I do notice it since the pandemic but so much changed for me during it my view might be skewed.
It's seems like an 'every man for themselves' kind of mindset to me... even as a now disabled person I see so much disregard and sometimes outright hatred of disabled people and their needs, and the sentiment seems to be the same for anyone else deemed 'less than'. It's the complete opposite to what I was taught growing up and how I felt we (generally) acted in society; to consider others and treat everyone equally - but saying that, I wasn't a visible part of a minority group before, so maybe that was my naivety.
I don't think it was the pandemic alone, but that it was a starting point that continues to be fuelled by other life/world events such as cost of living, immigration, war etc.
Herbert_Verne@reddit
Anecdotal at best, but I swear people use their car horns more than they did when I was a nipper (90's)
sharypower@reddit
Yes, most of the people were pushed/forced to "live" On-line - that was a part of the plan for big tech companies. People lost connection to each other, that's why they are behaving "poorly". Rarely leaving houses/flats, just eating junk food and being rude/aggressive to eachother.
While big tech companies coming even closer to our lives with the AI and many people will lose their jobs, there is one job which will be busier than ever. Psychiatrist.
Competitive_Test6697@reddit
For me it's always been that way, with adult. It's the area you love in, I think. I can drive from Glasgow to Oxford (for work) and the closer I get there the ruder people become. Can't even say thank you to a shop assistant without getting a stink eye.
That being said, there's a reason 42% of kids in my area are diagnosed with some sort of additional support needs and an uptick in kids who are non verbal in nurseries.
DangerousCalm@reddit
I feel there's two things happening in tandem:
Some people are getting ruder because they feel entitled to be.
Some people aren't following old social codes and a 'no' or an enforcement of a boundary feels like rudeness.
NoCold3997@reddit
Are you rude? Am I rude? ....some people have a inbuilt arsehole mode ..it's usually to do with economics or area ..don't worry we are not on the verge of a social breakdown.
stranglekelp@reddit
Less noticeable with adults. Very noticeable with kids.
Kids are feral and they will be an absolute nightmare when they grow up
blue_rizla@reddit
So you're saying the problem is kids these days?
NumeroRyan@reddit
I completely have the opposite experience. Old people seem to be wankers, young kids seem to be polite.
I live in a rural area though, so might be different if you live in a city or larger town.
odjobz@reddit
Having worked in schools, I completely agree. Most kids are very well behaved. Kids of my generation got into a lot more trouble.
stranglekelp@reddit
Lucky! All adults around me seem flawless, and kids are just animals
JibberJim@reddit
I live in a large town, most people are just as rude/polite as ever, but certainly you're much more likely to meet a rude old person than a rude kid.
Skatebored96@reddit
I find that I experience the opposite personally. I find that I experience more politeness from younger people, whereas middle aged people seem to have given up on manners
StarShipYear@reddit
Haven't noticed it myself. I've moved around various places in the UK so I don't really have a consistency to draw from. On the other hand I've been exposed to different cities and towns. Generally I find most people polite. Certainly, here in London, where there is high footfall in most places, we're probably looking at a bad interaction every few hundred or thousands of interactions.
DIKB3RT@reddit
I notice things like people not holding doors, not saying thank you when you hold the door, getting in a lift before people have left, groups of people spread across the pavement/promenade etc and not moving out the way etc.
I don’t think they are doing it on purpose, probably stuck in their own head and have no awareness at all. I think always being connected online is frying brains (as I post online).
Pale_Slide_3463@reddit
I think people just don’t care anymore and do whatever they want. Even before Covid older woman in groups were the worst to serve, I loved it when teenagers came in because they were always so polite. Also kids are only the way they’re because of their parents letting them behave in the running around screaming knocking everything down.
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