Friendly Irish Dead and gone?

LuasSimon · 13-11-2020 03:48PM #1

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.

13-11-2020 03:51PM

*doesnt look up from phone to respond*

fonecrusher1 · 13-11-2020 03:52PM

Hah?

super_furry · 13-11-2020 03:54PM

Tis shocking Joe, shocking.

CBEa_wjWEAEeZz4?format=jpg

humberklog · 13-11-2020 03:54PM

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 · 13-11-2020 03:55PM

The internet has made everyone schiozd these days.

ancapailldorcha · 13-11-2020 03:58PM

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 · 13-11-2020 03:58PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:00PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:00PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:10PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:14PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:14PM

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

Tork · 13-11-2020 04:18PM

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_ · 13-11-2020 04:21PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:22PM

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

Edgware · 13-11-2020 04:24PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:33PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:34PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:35PM

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

Smee_Again · 13-11-2020 04:36PM

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.

13-11-2020 04:38PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:46PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:49PM

[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 · 13-11-2020 04:50PM

[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.

13-11-2020 04:52PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:52PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:53PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Quirky how?

Elbow patches?

Myles na gGopaleen had a full chapter on them

Edgware · 13-11-2020 04:54PM

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 · 13-11-2020 04:57PM

Edgware wrote: »

Oh yeah. I remember your photofit on Crimecall

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

lulublue22 · 13-11-2020 05:48PM

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

Friendly Irish Dead and gone?

Comments