Ask Lemmy

26707 readers

1592 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

When walking into something like a waiting room of your doctor, do you say hello to the people there? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

58 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm asking because it's a very normal thing to do here.

When you enter a room, but also things like a hairdresser or say a small cafe, you say hello to the people there and say goodbye when leaving. Or when taking a bus, you say hello to the driver and goodbye or thank him when getting off.

I was only recently told by some online friends of mine that this is pretty weird in other places. So I'm wondering if I'm (or my country) is the weird one or them

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I try not to take it personally, because I have NO idea what's happening in that person's life, or what's happening in their head.

What if some of those people are deaf or mute? What if their parent just died and they're doing their best to not break down in tears? What if they had the most infuriating day/night of their life, and they are so upset that they can't be polite? What if they speak a foreign language? What if they have in-ear headphones that are tough to see?

There are many situations where I would feel silly for expecting a response, and realistically, many of them would be invisible to strangers.

For example, you're probably not going to tell someone who wished you good morning that you can't talk because you just found out your baby is going to be stillborn. You're probably going to try to shut things out while you process the intense emotions.

Please don't take it so personally, and maybe try to be a bit more empathetic to strangers. Neither you or I likely even have a chance of knowing their reasons.

I don't know about you, but I would honestly feel like a terrible person for getting annoyed at someone for not talking in the example above. One you say something, it's too late to undo it.

Please please please remember that a LOT of people likely have things going on that you're unaware of.