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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Don't misunderstand me: I'm not suggesting people shouldn't read in public places. Nothing of the sort. I read everywhere I go, myself (when I actually go anywhere). I'm just not sure it's reasonable to expect the public to honor your "pay no attention to this person behind the book" flag. There is no universally accepted "don't speak to this interesting-looking person in your vicinity" code. There never was.
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Both headphones in and declining attempts at eye contact are as close as we can get in our current society, short of hanging a LEAVE ME ALONE sign around our necks. What more can we possibly do to get the message across?
Have you had the experience of being part of a societal group that is routinely harrassed in public? I do believe there are some pretty clear flags in my society that when a person has both headphones in and ignores a person's first attempt at social contact, that that means " leave me alone". Is this universal through all of time and space? I don't know. But people brought up here who persist in attempting to make pointless social contact* in that situation deserve my ill opinion of them.
It used to be sexual harrassment. These days, for me, I not uncommonly have people interrupt my day, tap my on the bloody shoulder, occasionally stand in front of me stopping me from moving, and insist that I remove my headphones just so they can ask me "Do you have a licence for that thing?" (my powerchair), then expect me to laugh at their hilarious original joke.
If you didn't know that it is a bad idea to do this to people you don't know? No matter how interesting you think they look or how scintilliating you believe your company to be? Well, now you do.
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When I don't want people to talk to me, I stay away from public places where people will be.
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Well, the shopping isn't going to do itself. Nor are the myriad of other things that have to get done in a week.
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*Obviously, there are exceptions for things like "This building is on fire" or "you dropped your wallet".