Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
I'm going to soapbox a bit and wonder what it says about society if people are unwilling to interact in public spaces.
I'm not saying, for example, that early morning on the commuter train most people shouldn't be left alone, as in other regimented or regularly occurring situations where a person has little control over his environment. But in more casual and more fluid situations, I can't help thinking it's good for all of us to get outside ourselves a bit and interact at least some of the time.
A little more soapboxing: some people are lonely. They live alone, don't have jobs or family, have no usual means of social intercourse. They need the human contact. I think a touch of friendliness and openness can do a lot more good than people realize.
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...and other people get really stressed out by having to make small talk.
As I said earlier in the thread, if I'm in the grocery store or somewhere and someone has a question about something, that's fine--I can handle it. If I'm on the bus or on a plane and a stranger starts trying to make small talk, I start to panic, because I don't know what to say. I try to fix this by not traveling alone, but I sometimes do have to travel alone for work. If I could afford it, I would buy all of the seats around me in a plane so that I didn't have to worry about it.
I understand about lonely people...I've been a lonely person. It sucks. But even at my loneliest, I didn't like strangers talking to me on the bus.
Shari