r/Glasgow Tools

I feel like an old man ranting about today’s kids, but it’s not just them.

It’s extremely rare to go to a movie without someone checking their phone on full brightness, taking selfies during the movie, answering phone calls, or even playing music and rapping over it during a pivotal moment. It’s a mixture of young people up to people in their 60s—no genre of movie is safe! I now plan my movies at 9am on a Sunday or a movie that’s been out for two weeks to reduce the chance of selfish people like this.

It’s also equally impossible to take a 15min train journey into town without someone playing some sort of audio (be it music, a TV show for a child, sports, etc.) playing at a volume I can hear over my own headphones.

I don’t even go to nice places like Balloch or Largs on a sunny day because I don’t want to be trapped on a train full of people starting fights, playing music loudly, etc.

Or when I’m on calls when I’m working from home—my upstairs neighbour is mad enough that we’ve asked him kindly to not play his music so loud (enough that the person on the other end of the call can’t understand what I’m saying) that he has graffiti’d our flat number with “ASSHOLE” and “COCK” in the close of our building.

Or every night at 11:30pm this week there’s a man having very loud conversations on speakerphone whilst yelling and whistling for his dog, followed by another couple walking by with music blaring from a phone and talking louder than it, then another couple people chatting at full volume.

Is it just me?

Am I becoming more intolerant to rude people as I’m getting older?

There’s a saying: if everything smells like shit, check your own shoes. I feel like there’s more and more people around me that are causing me stress, so I’m wondering if it’s just me.

Or is there no more reasonable expectation of civility these days? Is this the new normal with today’s people? Am I already too set in my ways at 40 and there’s no hope for me?