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My point is that phones encourage this by their nature.
You fundamentally missed my point completely (no surprise ). The point was that NOBODY does those things. Why? Because those things are not phones. Phones lead people to detach. Are you disagreeing with that? The rudeness level is much higher with phones. The instrument makes a difference.
Geez try again.
Snort! You've never seen anyone with a book at a coffee shop? I can't swear that I've ever seen anyone with an open book ordering coffee, but I can't say that I haven't, either. Ditto with newspapers at a restaurant when eating with friends. Just recently, I saw a guy driving with a book propped open on the steering wheel. Not a kindle or phone, mind you, a book.
Live in St. Louis (South City). I'm naturally outgoing so my experience might be different than most. Still, people initiate conversations with me in line and at coffee shops. It's customary to acknowledge strangers at parks and on hiking trails.
I think this varies greatly in different neighborhoods, and of course in the suburbs.
Disagree with the Boston stuff, every time I go there I end up talking to people I don't know. I think if your not then that means your not a social person and you yourself are cold and standoffish. Down south it doesn't matter whether you are or not though, people will approach you. A lot of times they want things though.
Disagree with the Boston stuff, every time I go there I end up talking to people I don't know. I think if your not then that means your not a social person and you yourself are cold and standoffish. Down south it doesn't matter whether you are or not though, people will approach you. A lot of times they want things though.
OR maybe because you're a tourist at Faneuil hall and talk to other tourists or natives in hospitality industries. I don't take your couple out of towner anecdotes over my day to day 24 hour per day 7 days a week existence.
But sure, call me unsociable and cold and standoffish. Thanks.
Snort! You've never seen anyone with a book at a coffee shop? I can't swear that I've ever seen anyone with an open book ordering coffee, but I can't say that I haven't, either. Ditto with newspapers at a restaurant when eating with friends. Just recently, I saw a guy driving with a book propped open on the steering wheel. Not a kindle or phone, mind you, a book.
So would you say you see just as many people reading books while driving or even at a cafe as you do see people on their phones in similar situations?
You're letting your dislike for my posts cloud your honesty and it's getting ridiculous. I don't know what reality you live in. You obviously can't be sincere here. It's ok to admit it.
OR maybe because you're a tourist at Faneuil hall and talk to other tourists or natives in hospitality industries. I don't take your couple out of towner anecdotes over my day to day 24 hour per day 7 days a week existence.
But sure, call me unsociable and cold and standoffish. Thanks.
I'm just giving my experience as someone who has lived in new England for over twenty years and has been to Boston dozens of times.In fact this latest time I met several people on the street and was invited to a party, I invited some others I had just met to come too. Then we spent the whole night chating with people about everything.
I agree with the gal from Minnesota about strangers really not talking to you. I don't fit in well with that, though. I grew up in northern MN and was the awkward one attempting to talk with people and offer my 2 cents more like someone from the south. I don't really think that a cashier should hold up a line, though, but if there's no one else in line, I don't mind making small talk.
I currently live in Austin, TX and people are more friendly here and it is a bit more normal to strike up conversation with a stranger, but really it depends since there are a lot of transplants like me from other areas. I visited my friend in rural Virginia, too. And, there they have the thing with the cashiers even striking up conversation.
Strangers speak to each other frequently here in Michigan, but I live in a small town where people do not tend to be as suspicious of strangers here as they are in a big city. People here strike up conversations in check out lines, smile and make eye contact, and just present an overall approachable demeanor, but again, it may be more of a small town/rural thing, I don't know, it probably is, although I have also met very friendly people in Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit.
What's nice too, and I imagine that this probably happens when non-Michiganders run into people from their own home states too, is that no matter where we travel in the U.S., if we happen to meet someone else from Michigan, we end up chatting like long lost cousins. Whenever we go to a Detroit Tigers spring training game in Florida, it is like one big, Tiger lovin', Mitten dwellin' family reunion, lol.
One thing I noticed when I was spending time in Orlando last fall visiting cousins is that cashiers EVERYWHERE want to make smalltalk with every single customer that goes through their line.
I know exactly what you mean. I am from the SF Bay Area, and people here are friendly for the most part and will chat with strangers. But, if it's the cashier, he/she only chats with you until they're finished with helping you. They keep the line moving.
When I moved to TN, it drove me NUTS how the cashiers would just stop everything to have a conversation with everyone in line, just expecting everyone to stand there waiting. I finally go used to it, and allowed extra time for it, but never understood it.
Then, they'd get to me, and they'd expect me to keep standing there talking. It's tricky to get away without being rude.
And in the South, the culture is to spend a lot of time chit chatting before you get down to business. In the west, you'd ask how are the kids, your wife, how bout them "insert sports team," but by the time they've finished shaking hands and sat down, they're ready to talk business. Not in the south. They'll drink a pitcher of lemonade or half a bottle of whatever, before they get down to business.
Definitely different cultures and different levels of "friendly" and "rude."
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try again.
