The Neurotoxin named Rudeness

Lately, I have been noticing a lot of rudeness. Well, of course, rudeness existed since time immemorial; what I mean is I have been super late in noticing it. I must confess that I am not the very observant type, so I would not pay attention if rudeness hit me in the face!

So if a person like me has sat up and taken notice, it means that I have not experienced or witnessed just some sporadic episodes of rudeness. It means I am being fed a continuous stream of rudeness – during my morning coffee, ride to work, lunch break, and toilet seat. And this feed of rudeness is digital- through that device called the mobile phone or to be more precise the smartphone.

My attachment to my mobile phone might turn into a serious affliction. My google search on “is reading rude comments ok” returned that exposure to this neurotoxin of rudeness will affect my nervous system and lead to memory loss. Well, I definitely can do with some memories being lost forever (imagine all the embarrassing moments of your life being deleted from the brain’s hard disk), I was terrified of forgetting my keys inside the car or my bank password. 

I do not want to lose my memory prematurely, so to cut down my exposure to rudeness, I decide to not look at Twitter, or the generic Facebook or Insta threads. “I will just read the What’s App texts” I decide. And this is what I read in our apartment’s resident group:

A606: “Dear Management Committee. I am from A606 and have been facing severe issues due to the renovation work going on in the apartment directly above, ie A706. I want to understand why we are allowing such noisy renovation. And also, for HOW LONG”? 

B606 (neither A606 nor A706’s neighbor, nor a part of the management committee): “I can truly understand your pain. We have been suffering because of the noises in the flat next to us. I don’t know why people are so insensitive to others. No sense at all!”

C708(again, neither A606 nor A706’s neighbor, nor a part of the management committee): “Really! These creatures don’t give a damn about other people’s pain. They do whatever they want. Every other night someone above my flat pulls and pushes furniture around, God knows to what joy”!

C709 Reply to C708: Watch your words. I can sue you for using such derogatory language. My father has been sick for a while. He gets these bouts of breathlessness at night and sometimes asks us to move his bed a bit nearer to the window. In the morning, we move it back since he complains of too much noise. We don’t enjoy doing this.

A706 Reply to A606. We are not doing anything illegal. We have taken approval for completion of work till Sep end. 

Tada, Tada, Tada and it continues. 

I had expected that a Whats App group of people who lived in the same community would be civil and nice. Of course, I had to be disappointed! 

 I wonder if the world is becoming ruder and nastier by the day. Maybe it is easier to be rude and nasty behind the screen of anonymity. Or maybe it’s the lack of eye contact that allows us to be mean and unpleasant to our fellow beings. 

We seem to have a compelling need to air every bit of our lives in public- Our life has become a billboard of sorts. Just like our occasions and vacations, our opinion and dissension are posted on our social media billboards for all to view. Some like what we post, and some do not. To those who do not, social media has given them a wide platform to uninhibitedly express themselves as disrespectfully, as insensitively, and as abominably as they choose to. I have seen many people get into issues and conversations that do not even concern them and make terrible comments. It appears people are on the lookout for just a vent for their nastiness.

I will probably have to switch back to a button phone and cut off all social media access to get rid of that neurotoxin called rudeness and save myself from memory loss!

As my eyes go back to those What’s App texts in our Apartment group, my mind starts to conjure up the same situation between A606 and A706 in the pre-social-media era. A606 would walk up the flight of stairs to A706, ring the doorbell, and get invited in. And both would sort this out very nicely and respectfully. With a cuppa and a conversation!