Friendly Irish Dead and gone?

LuasSimon

Even before any Covid looking at younger people living locally,they are all heads down stuck in their phone engaging with very few people.
If you are on a bus or train one time youd get talking to whoever was next to you, now between headphones and iphones nobody is talking to anyone. They struggle to hold a conversation with a stranger . If your a tourist you might as well be in downtown London you have as good a chance of someone speaking to you.

*doesnt look up from phone to respond*

fonecrusher1

Hah?

super_furry

Tis shocking Joe, shocking.

humberklog

Not a chance. Having someone " on a bus or train one time youd get talking to whoever was next to you" was a pain in the hole and thankfully quite uncommon.

If you did have such a journey with someone trying to chat to you you'd get off and soon be telling a friend that you had a nightmare of a trip "Argh, some bloke just got on, sat beside and started chatting all the way from Athlone to Dublin." "Oh I hate that..."

You're looking back too fondly on an unpleasant experience.

Tommy Bin Laden

The internet has made everyone schiozd these days.

ancapailldorcha

It's an improvement if you ask me. I got a packed bus from Dublin to Donegal for a few years back. It being Christmas and BE being the pack of fools that they are meant that seats often were scarce but a nice lad at the airport made sure I got the very last one. I got stuck at the back listening to some lad going on about Theresa May and the NI border. As the trip goes on, he switches subjects while I wish I were stranded at the airport. Eventually, we get to Cavan where he gets off but at that point he's run out of material so he beings at the start again with Mrs. May.

Phones are an improvement IMO.

AMKC

I agree totally and I have travelled on buses lots at least before Covid. It would have been very rare for someone even to say hello. Hell sometimes you were lucky if they even asked if they could sit beside you or ask you to move your bag or coat that you might have on that seat. Don't get me wrong I am not a seat hogger but a bit of decency and manners goes a long way. Sure I would listen to my earphones too but always said hello if someone sat beside me.

Padre_Pio

LuasSimon wrote: »

Even before any Covid looking at younger people living locally,they are all heads down stuck in their phone engaging with very few people.
If you are on a bus or train one time youd get talking to whoever was next to you, now between headphones and iphones nobody is talking to anyone. They struggle to hold a conversation with a stranger . If your a tourist you might as well be in downtown London you have as good a chance of someone speaking to you.

As far back as I can remember, people were putting bags and coats on the spare seat to keep it free. It's nothing new.

cml387

Totally agree. It should be like in the UK where if someone on a train insists in engaging you in conversation you are entitled by law to pull the communication cord.

jamesbere

Tourists are fine, they'll just want to know some local info and generally stop talking after a while. But it's the annoying fella that gets on the bus and tries to talk about the most pointless stuff and you have to pretend to take interest.

Headphones are the best thing ever

Edgware

Trouble with this is that you end being entertained by some local loser talking ****e who wasnt able to get through to R.T.E. on the phone and say "I blame the politicians Joe"
I dont mind having a chat with someone but I'm not wasting my time with the local deadbeat

FunLover18

I'd consider myself a fairly friendly person and I wouldn't dream of talking to a stranger on public transport.

Tork

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Remembering eejits talking rubbish to you on the bus as a good thing is a particularly shíte form of nostalgia.

Thank feck for headphones.

Headphones and my nose stuck in a book didn't save me back in the day. Polite 19 year old me made the error of taking off my headphones and listening to the nutter who had tapped me on the shoulder. That was one long train journey. These days I'd politely but firmly end the conversation pretty quickly.

_Kaiser_

I remember getting talking to a girl on a coach one time years ago and she seemed nice and we swapped numbers

Rang her and we met up then in town for pints a week later. Big mistake! She turned into a completely different person after a few pints and it wasn't an improvement! She then rang a few days later all apologetic so I foolishly decided "everyone deserves a second chance". Was even worse that night.

Headphones FTW.. or better yet, personal transport FTW

Scoundrel

Only lunatics, bogeys and sex pests talk to strangers on public transport.

Edgware

jamesbere wrote: »

Tourists are fine, they'll just want to know some local info and generally stop talking after a while. But it's the annoying fella that gets on the bus and tries to talk about the most pointless stuff and you have to pretend to take interest.

Headphones are the best thing ever

But you do realise you will miss out on how to solve the Brexit crisis or why Liverpool should have signed Ronaldo first

Church on Tuesday

jamesbere wrote: »

Tourists are fine, they'll just want to know some local info and generally stop talking after a while. But it's the annoying fella that gets on the bus and tries to talk about the most pointless stuff and you have to pretend to take interest.

Headphones are the best thing ever

This. Although the very rare time I had some decent conversations with people, most of the time it would be insufferable nonsense or, even worse, small talk.

Most of the time, if you have to travel on a bus, you really don't want to be there and you would prefer to be left alone.

Dante

I was on a flight home from London last year and had some aul cúnt trying to burn the ear off me despite having my headphones in and clearly not want to talk. I had just worked a 13-hour day and was absolutely wrecked, the last thing I wanted to do was make small talk with some oddball for 90 minutes.

At the end of the flight while we were all standing up waiting to disembark, he taps on my shoulder and shouts in front of everyone in the aisle 'people like you are whats wrong with the country today. Addicted to technology with no manners'.

Give me a break...

EmmetSpiceland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYYo49R_ZS0

Smee_Again

There's 2 types of people on buses and public transport in general. The weirdos who go around talking and interacting with other passengers and everyone else. OP you would appear to be the former and that is not someone you want to be.

Every single bus/tram/train etc has at least 1 weirdo on it, and if you can't recognise them it means you're the weirdo.

Just leave people alone and let them travel in peace.

DaaaaaaaaaaN

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

I was on a flight home from London last year and had some aul cúnt trying to burn the ear off me despite having my headphones in and clearly not want to talk. I had just worked a 13-hour day and was absolutely wrecked, the last thing I wanted to do was make small talk with some oddball for 90 minutes.

At the end of the flight while we were all standing up waiting to disembark, he taps on my shoulder and shouts in front of everyone in the aisle 'people like you are whats wrong with the country today. Addicted to technology with no manners'.

Give me a break...

I wonder is there a way you could explain that you had just worked a 13-hour day and were exhausted and didn't feel like talking. Is there a way to say that without being rude? It's a delicate one.

Church on Tuesday

Deleted User wrote: »

I wonder is there a way you could explain that you had just worked a 13-hour day and were exhausted and didn't feel like talking. Is there a way to say that without being rude? It's a delicate one.

No, those kinds of people are poor listeners.

Edgware

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I wonder is there a way you could explain that you had just worked a 13-hour day and were exhausted and didn't feel like talking. Is there a way to say that without being rude? It's a delicate one.

There isn't. These characters are not interested in anyone but themselves. Start telling them you had just done a 13 hour day and they will regale you of how they used do 16 hour days on the Burma railway during the war

Dante

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I wonder is there a way you could explain that you had just worked a 13-hour day and were exhausted and didn't feel like talking. Is there a way to say that without being rude? It's a delicate one.

He was one of those 'quirky' D4 types who love the sound of their own voice. 99% of people would have picked up the mood and got on with things.

DaaaaaaaaaaN

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

He was one of those 'quirky' D4 types who love the sound of their own voice. 99% of people would have picked up the mood and got on with things.

Quirky how?

is_that_so

A four year old cornered me on DB once to tell me about fairies, in great detail. I just nodded my way through it.

Edgware

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Quirky how?

Elbow patches?

Myles na gGopaleen had a full chapter on them

Edgware

is_that_so wrote: »

A four year old cornered me on DB once to tell me about fairies, in great detail. I just nodded my way through it.

Oh yeah. I remember your photofit on Crimecall

is_that_so

Edgware wrote: »

Oh yeah. I remember your photofit on Crimecall

According to her mother the child had a (track) record of random engagement!

lulublue22

From the other side years ago when our eldest was 4 and his sister a baby we flew to the states. Some poor man got stuck next to us - the four year old talked and talked and talked to the poor man for virtually the whole flight. I couldn’t distract him for any length of time - any time I tried he simply re engaged again. I was cringing. When we landed the man thanked him for keeping him company and insisted on giving him a few dollars to buy himself something nice. I thought it was a lovely gesture for what must have been one long painful flight

McGinniesta

Padre_Pio wrote: »

As far back as I can remember, people were putting bags and coats on the spare seat to keep it free. It's nothing new.

One of the highlights of my day is taking the bag off the chair and handing it back to the person that put it there.

Stopping someone from using the seat is the height of ignorance to me.

Edgware

McGinniesta wrote: »

One of the highlights of my day is taking the bag off the chair and handing it back to the person that put it there.

Stopping someone from using the seat is the height of ignorance to me.

Exactly. A bird told me one time that she didn't want to watch me masturbating. I told her to get a different bus so

Your Face

Good.

Travelled from Oviedo to Bilbao in Spain about 2 years ago. Woman beside me wouldn't shut the **** up.

No, I don't support the ira, yes I know about eta, no I don't give a **** about your personal life. Yes my Spanish is poor, i am the one that said it at the very start of this **** show.

See this 10" screen with a movie on it and earphones plugged into it's side? Take the ****ing hint!

So there ya go op, Bilbao has your soul mate waiting

On a funnier (now) note. I went on a lunchtime date many moons ago. All went well and we decided to catch a movie. Original toby maguire Spiderman. Anyway, just us there, place is empty and happy days thinks I. Until a lad with down syndrome strolls in, sits beside me in the entirely empty cinema and proceeds to tell me the entire plot because it's his fifth time seeing it. Made her laugh anyway but not enough for a third date.

CrabRevolution

I started taking the bus regularly about 10 years ago, and even then everyone I know would have called someone a weirdo if they:

1. Sat beside you despite there being free pairs of seats still left on the bus
or
2. Began trying to talk to you.

I take it the OP is one of those weirdos and is now disappointed that people have become more overt in not talking to them.

McGinniesta

Edgware wrote: »

Exactly. A bird told me one time that she didn't want to watch me masturbating. I told her to get a different bus so

I hear you. Some people have no respect for the wants and needs of their follow transport user.

Celtic tiger killed it and it’s never coming back. Different country now.

anplaya27

jamesbere wrote: »

Tourists are fine, they'll just want to know some local info and generally stop talking after a while. But it's the annoying fella that gets on the bus and tries to talk about the most pointless stuff and you have to pretend to take interest.

Headphones are the best thing ever

Nah being Deaf is , noone bothers you then

Ardillaun

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Remembering eejits talking rubbish to you on the bus as a good thing is a particularly shíte form of nostalgia.

Thank feck for headphones.

It’s not the best example of what phones are doing to younger people especially. The same behaviour occurs at the family dinner table where conversation is a little more important. We are being isolated from each other by these machines.

Ubbquittious

I got chatting to a girlie from UK on the train one time about 6 years ago. Exchanged number, texted for few months then agreed to meet in Wales for a weekend. Ended up going out with her for a spell and met up good few times after that. Long distance didn't last but still in touch.

Edgware

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I got chatting to a girlie from UK on the train one time about 6 years ago. Exchanged number, texted for few months then agreed to meet in Wales for a weekend. Ended up going out with her for a spell and met up good few times after that. Long distance didn't last but still in touch.

And your point is?

Eduard Khil

Make Ireland Safe Again

Dr. Bre

Edgware wrote: »

And your point is?

He got the ride?

Tork

Ardillaun wrote: »

It’s not the best example of what phones are doing to younger people especially. The same behaviour occurs at the family dinner table where conversation is a little more important. We are being isolated from each other by these machines.

Ignoring strangers on public transport is a far cry from what's going on at the dinner table. Though for what it's worth, people losing themselves in their phones when they're at home isn't a good thing.

Edgware

Dr. Bre wrote: »

He got the ride?

A few months later and a weekend in Wales. Hardly worth the effort.

LuasSimon

Does it cost much to have a few words for someone , maybe some people could do with a bit of a friendly chat ...
People are donating or running for pieta house etc but hardly say hello to their neighbour . Be better if people were friendly to those they come across than their heads stuck in a phone and headphones on .
Young people have 2000 friends on Facebook but if something goes wrong in real life they don’t have 3 friends to talk to and end up doing something stupid . If they make talk to people around them they might be better off

Ekerot

Edgware wrote: »

A few months later and a weekend in Wales. Hardly worth the effort.

He enjoyed himself and got a good friend out of it, is that not enough?

Ubbquittious

Edgware wrote: »

And your point is?

This thread is filled with miserable hoors.


Chat to someone next day you're on the train or bus and you never know where it could lead

whisky_galore

Public transport. The only outlet left for the pub bore.

jmlad2020

I am guilty of this however as I grow older in life / shake off a few bad habits I recognize the importance of the odd hello and stranger connection. After all we are all apes trying to navigate our way on this messed up little planet. Few see it this way anymore. Instagram likes and showing how cool you are on TikTok is now more important as a little chit chat back in day.

But to the original poster, your grandad, his grandfather and his grandfather before him likely had similar feelings and observations on the forthcoming /preceding generation. Little changes in society, be it the invention of the printing press or At Patrick bringing Christianity to pagan Ireland has resulted in where we are at today.

Food shortages, solar flares or an all out nuclear war might swing the young people off their phones, making them realise what's important in life. The little things.