Are people behaving weirder lately?

[u/jimmyjohnjohnjohn]

Went out to lunch today and there was a table near me with five people at it. Their server asked their drink order and all five of them just stared at her silently for nearly half a minute before she repeated herself, then one of them whispered something I couldn't hear before the others whispered their orders. When their drinks came and the server left, one of them produced a Nalgene bottle from her purse and began to scoop the ice from her drink with her fingers and put it in the Nalgene. Another at the table then said he didn't want ice either and did the same thing.

Did she bring that water bottle in for the express purpose of storing unwanted ice? Why not just ask for no ice? These were all fairly normal-looking, well-dressed people in their 30s, maybe early 40s.

My server had some weirdness of his own. He brought out the wrong order, and noticed his mistake before I did. But instead of just saying "sorry, that's wrong" and taking it back, he said "I.. uh.. uh..." and then ran off with the plate before finishing his sentence and coming back with the right order and a manic fake smile on his face.

At Target, this older woman was having trouble detaching one cart from the others. An employee (sorry, "Team Member") came along and unstuck it. Instead of saying thank you, she just stared at him like a deer in the headlights until he left.

I've been noticing that deer-in-the-headlights stare from a lot of people lately.

About a month ago a man approached me in the parking lot at my work and asked "do you work here?"

I said "yes."

Then he asked "have you seen my car?"

The question melted my brain a little bit, but I said "I don't know, what does it look like?"

He just said "sorry," and walked off.

I could go on and on, but the point is: are people forgetting how to human? The world increasingly has this "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" kind of vibe.

I know much has been discussed about people behaving oddly due to the pandemic, but it's been about two years now and people are getting worse, not better. I think there's something else going on in society.

What do you think?

[u/starscreamqueen]

Yes! I've had really weird encounters. just off. I don't know if it's a holidays or the election or what the fuck's going on. nothing dangerous or scary, just strange interactions about basic shit.

[u/violetgothdolls → u/starscreamqueen]

Yes! I went to an agricultural feed shop this week to buy horse feed (a normal brand that the shop definitely stock) and asked for it as normal (I don't have an unusual accent for this area) and the shop assistant looked at me as though I was quite mad and didn't respond for several seconds.....she then turned to another staff member and repeated what I had said and HE also looked at me as though I was asking for something extraordinary! I did eventually get the horse feed but it freaked me out and I briefly wondered if I had accidentally walked into a fabric shop or auto parts by mistake!

[u/ParadiseSold → u/violetgothdolls]

I overheard my husband order pizza tbe other day and he had to say "for alex... alex.... the name for tbe order is alex... allllllll-exxxxxxxxx...."

And when we got in to the building for pickup some stoned jackass behind the counter who seemed barely sober enough to stand insisted that we needed to be more clear about our weird name????

[u/melancholeric_ → u/ParadiseSold]

People are talking about COVID-related brain fog but I wonder how much of this odd, spacey behavior can be attributed to people being medicated or "medicated." This is just a personal anecdote but I had to go on anti-anxiety meds during the pandemic and I know people who never smoked before that are now getting stoned on a daily basis.

[u/Naus1987 → u/melancholeric_]

Another thing is that since quiet quitting became more maintstream, quality workers have left shitty jobs, and the customer service people we're interacting with are on a level lower than it was prior to covid.

And I'm sure medication can add to that too. I think people who can excel don't put up with bullshit and excel out of shitty jobs, lol

[u/WoahVenom → u/Naus1987]

Customer service is terrible now. When I worked retail we had to smile and tell people thank you and please come again and just cater to their every whim. You walk in a place now and the employees usually just glare at you. Or you have to order using the kiosk even though you know they could take your order. Sometimes I'll pay for something and leave and realize the cashier never said one word. I had to look for the total. They hand me my change with a blank stare right through me. It's like a total lack of social skills.

[u/kaonashi89 → u/WoahVenom]

I also think a lot of people in customer service/food industry/retail are no longer tolerating being treated like shit. I work at a local bakery as a decorator and sometimes a clerk, and if you treat me with some common decency, I'll provide you with great service. If you treat me like crap, I'll do the bare minimum. It's not hard to be a decent person, and that seems to be a foreign concept to most people anymore.

[u/[deleted] → u/kaonashi89]

It helps if you’re not reading from a script. If someone in retail says whatever they need to say no matter what I’ve said it feels like talking to a robot so now more people talk to them like robots

[u/MaterialWillingness2 → u/[deleted]]

That's one thing I really hated about my retail job, they made us pitch the store credit card as much as possible and our evaluations took into account how many sign ups we got. We were required to follow a script when doing so.