I'm sitting in the waiting area for my follow up appointment with a doctor. As usual with waiting rooms, it's full of people mindlessly sitting and waiting for similar things.
While I generally hate waiting, if I have something constructive to keep me busy, I don't consider it a waste of time. Today however I looked around - everyone is sitting on their phones, ignoring their children and there's a woman here about three seats away from me who is very loudly sucking on an orange. It is the most disgusting noise and is not going down too well with me as it's making my stomach turn.
I like to observe people - human behaviour is intriguing most of the time and while others tend to not take the time to see things for what they are, I watch them. I watch them arguing and being loud. I watch them talking in hushed tones too. Even though inaudible, I can see when there is gossip on the run.
I don't think that anyone here is observing me as when I look around, it's mostly blank stares and glazed over expressions. My situational awareness is quite keen as I like to be able to see and sense if any situation may be threatening and I hate being caught off-guard.
Social etiquette is on the decline and when in a setting like this, it's not unheard of even after the entire Covid pandemic to see people coughing without covering their mouths, burping with no request to be pardoned and speaking well above the normal range of hearing seems commonplace. It's all going to shit.
I can remember a time when there was still a sense of being polite, when people still said excuse me when they sneezed and were answered with "Bless you". I hear these phrases less often these days and sometimes I get looks of astonishment as if I were the spawn of satan just by uttering them. People are genuinely shocked when you are polite. I find it bizarre behaviour but such is the downfall of society I suppose. Less decorum is the norm.
Yesterday morning I was awoken at 6:30am by the sound of an electric drill. My brother is generally very polite and maintains a high level of respect towards fellow people, but I think yesterday he was so keen to get started with his construction work that he figured 6:30 was an ok time for it to commence, immaterial of who was still sleeping or awake. When he asked me, I told him I was already awake because I was meant to wake up at 6am anyway.
I do however worry about the next generations observing this kind of behaviour and having no real leadership to follow are going to simply assume the worst behaviour from their peers and leaders. It grates my soul.
Sure I am also guilty. I swear a lot and many people would frown upon that so I am also part of that problem, but I don't swear loudly in public unless there's a really good reason. I also wouldn't be caught dead eating an orange loudly and making the most grotesque sucking noises for everyone to hear. Perhaps I'm just old fashioned but it doesn't paint a great picture for the future.
