I was traveling earlier this month on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando by myself. I love to people-watch when I am in crowded places and being on the plane was no exception.
I was sitting behind a young couple who had 2 children probably around 2 and 4 years old. They sat the children together on the opposite side of the aisle to them. The couple was talking, kissing, and generally being attentive to each other. The children however were jumping around, not wearing seat belts at take-off. They were playing with the tray tables up and down and kicking the chairs in front of them luckily the seats in front of the children were empty. The air staff could not see the children were not strapped in because they were small and hidden from view because of the chairs.
On the way back from Orlando there was a young adult seated across the aisle from me at the window seat. There was a lady sitting next to her. This young lady had a movie on her phone she was watching which is nothing unusual except she did not wear headphones or earbuds therefore we could all hear the movie she was watching.
Once we were in the air the lady next to her went and sat in another seat, the people in front of her were wearing earplugs and the people behind her had their own headsets on. The people who could hear this movie were me and the lady sitting next to me.
What did I do both times on these flights? “NOTHING” why? I sat there through both flights going over in my mind how to approach these people and politely talk to them but never did.
This brought me to think about what our society has come to.
Years gone by I would have politely asked the young person to either wear earbuds or turn the volume down, years gone by the young person would have been considerate and not had a loud movie playing for all to hear.
We have become a society of fear, fear to speak to people for fear of repercussions unlike years gone by people do not respect each other anymore and everyone has some sort of agenda and feeling of entitlement.
It has been 2 weeks since my flight and I am still thinking about it and disappointed that the world has come to this.
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