I see crazy people! They're everywhere!

[Gigabyte]

I see them all the time! They don't know they are crazy ....

It used to be a rare thing, people walking, or driving, talking to themselves. Arguing sometimes, other times pleading, sometimes ranting, to the thin air, not another soul around, and in a crowd, everybody gave them a wide berth, especially the shouters, loud voices raised to no on in particular. Sort of creepy/scary the first few times you saw it.

But in the last ten years or so, they have increased, I see them all the time now. In stores, driving in cars, walking about, standing around, sometimes they are checking out groceries, sometimes they are even in groups, but all of them talking to somebody who isn't there.

I blame these infernal devices they have stuck in their ears, sometimes connected by a wire, sometimes not, some look just like a Borg device, sometimes with LED lights on it. It somehow transforms seemingly ordinary people into crazy people. They stick this thing in the ear, and start going insane.

Like the crazy people of old, they don't seem to pay attention to the real people around them, even getting annoyed if you try to talk to them. They act like you are interrupting what is obviously an very important conversation they are having. With somebody who isn't there.

Sometimes they point at the device in the ear, like that explains everything. It's like they somehow think this excuses them from being not only a crazy person, but rude as well. I've seen them talk with out stopping, while shopping, checking out, walking out of the store, get in their expensive gas hogging SUV, and drive off still talking, never having actually communicated anything to anyone around them.

As is so often the case, the insane think they are quite sane, and anybody who interrupts their own brand of personal crazyness is the bad person.

It's so common that I think everybody is so used to it, it isn't even a shock anymore. I've experimented several times, talking out loud as if I am having a conversation with somebody who isn't even real, and nobody bats an eye.

I'm not kidding. And I don't even have a Borg device attached to my ear.

Once somebody asked me where I got the dental implant, or a sub-vocal transponder or something, but I just ignored them, pointing at my ear, and they stopped bothering me. It really is amazing, this new world.

I've almost given up hope, that this endemic disease, that is spreading like crazy, can be stopped. I think it effected the rich and powerful first, as I noticed they were the first to succumb to the malady.

But now it has spread to every part of society. I stopped to give an obvious crazy person some money (he was talking to himself, begging, with a sign and everything, and dressed rather poorly for the weather), and is my wont, before giving the cash, I said a few words of support to him, but he shushed me, and pointed to his ear. As I walked off, I realized that maybe all those people I thought were crazy so many years ago, talking to themselves, maybe they were just ahead of the curve.

[Buttercup]

Yeah, I know the feeling. It took me a while to get used to "one-sided" conversations in the next aisle in stores [cellphones].

I'm also becoming more accustomed to irritating [and usually brainless] yap yap yap in waiting lines. Makes you wonder how the 40+ crowd especially ever survived without.

Talk is cheap. Cellphones prove it.

[peteshimmon]

Well it was not always like that Sixty,
seventy years ago, the guys hitting the
beach desperately wanted the big brick
thingie with the silver aerial to call up
artillery support. Then in following years
the occasional radio ham was seen using them.
Some thirty four years ago my kid sister aged
6 had a pair of toy walkie talkies for
Christmas and it was neat seeing her make
contact with another kid a few houses away
who also had a pair.

And now..well they were bound to come!
When is the model incorporated in a bright
coloured sweater coming? Where you pat the
wings to reply!

[kleindoofy]

... It used to be a rare thing, people walking, or driving, talking to themselves. ...

True, earplug cell phones make it difficult to see who's on the phone and who's a whacko. Or who's both.

However, over the last two decades I've been noticing that:

1. the percentage of really bad drivers is increasing,

2. the number of people who get in your way on the sidewalk is increasing dramatically. They just stop right in front of you, cross your path without looking, weave back and forth across the sidewalk so you can't get by without pushing them aside, etc. Most people used to look or in some way take their surroundings into consideration, but much, much less people do that now.

**deleted**

I'm thinking about buying an electric cattle prod.

[Cougar]

I'm thinking about buying an electric cattle prod.

Yeah, or a miniaturized electromagnetic pulse mechanism.

[Jeff Root]

Is this in any way different from a person talking on an ordinary
telephone that they are holding in the hand on the far side of their
body where you can't see it?

Do you have a need to see both people when two people are talking
to each other? Do you want to hear both sides of their conversation?
When someone else talks on a phone, do you have to find out who
they are talking to? Do you want people using public telephones to
position themselves so that you can see the handset, so that you
can see that they are talking on the phone, not just standing close
to the phone and talking to themselves?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[TrAI]

I can report we have some of those over here too, standing around talking to themselves, I sometimes wonder if some people have a mental makeup that makes it desirable for them to talk loudly about personal stuff and have a need for constant output. I guess that people like this must have been mad with the disconnectedness before the mobile became widespread...

But about people blocking the way; Close to where I work there is a shopping center, so I often go there to shop on my way home. There are some parts where the width between the store fronts is rather small, but due to the design of the building everyone going to another part of the center must pass through these.

Now, this means that there is a rather high number of people passing close to each other, so you are almost certain to find that at any time there are a few people meeting someone they know here. Then they stop and start talking...

Two people with bags, baskets and/or a shopping cart stopping side by side can easily take up 1/4 of the width, and often it is more than 2 people... Interestingly, only 15-20 meters away in ether direction there is a large open area where you could have many tens of people without any problem, but in stead they stop where they are. They could at least have reduced the problem by getting out to the sides and getting into a more linear configuration along the walls, but no, most of the time the talkers will assume a cluster formation, almost like they are some drop of water seeking the shape of lowest energy or something, and so end up reducing the walkwidth of the area quite drasticaly...

It really surprises me that someone can stand in the middle of an area like this and be oblivious to the impact it has on the flow of walkers.

[hhEb09'1]

Do you have a need to see both people when two people are talking
to each other? Do you want to hear both sides of their conversation?

I think the point is that we'd just as soon not hear either side of the conversation.

[Gigabyte]

I have to ask, does any other country have people in it, that stop their cars to talk to each other, in the MIDDLE of the damn road. And when you pull up behind them, because they are blocking both sides of th street, they don't even move. Like they have the right to simply stop traffic while they talk.

It is insane, but in America, there is a certain group of people who do this ALL the time.

[mugaliens]

It is insane, but in America, there is a certain group of people who do this ALL the time.

There's another group of people who enjoy leaning on the horn in response.

[gzhpcu]

I have to ask, does any other country have people in it, that stop their cars to talk to each other, in the MIDDLE of the damn road. And when you pull up behind them, because they are blocking both sides of th street, they don't even move. Like they have the right to simply stop traffic while they talk.

It is insane, but in America, there is a certain group of people who do this ALL the time.

Not here in Southern Switzerland, which is very latin. If you are a second late when the light turns green, they honk...

[ABR.]

I have to ask, does any other country have people in it, that stop their cars to talk to each other, in the MIDDLE of the damn road. And when you pull up behind them, because they are blocking both sides of th street, they don't even move. Like they have the right to simply stop traffic while they talk.

It is insane, but in America, there is a certain group of people who do this ALL the time.

You forgot to mention what these people do when you honk at them to move or give them a nasty look as you -- if you get to, that is -- drive past them.

These people also feel the need to stop their shopping cart in the middle of the aisle in the grocery store. Last night, my 3-year old and I were shopping. At one point, I pulled the cart (and son) aside to let someone past. This woman needed to get to an item shere we were standing so we moved again. She got what she needed and then moved past us...only to stop in the center of the aisle to consult her coupons. There she stayed, oblivious to us even with a couple of polite "excuse me"s. We finally had to go back the other way. I made sure I explained very loudly to my son the meaning of rude as we walked slowly away.

[LaurelHS]

the number of people who get in your way on the sidewalk is increasing dramatically. They just stop right in front of you, cross your path without looking, weave back and forth across the sidewalk so you can't get by without pushing them aside, etc.

I see a lot of cyclists who ride on the sidewalk and act like this. There seems to be a game of "How Close Can I Get To A Pedestrian Before I Actually Hit Them?" Also many of them are wearing headphones while they do this; they don't consider helmets necessary, but music is essential. Or they fly down the sidewalk with one hand on the handlebars and use the other hand to send a text message (yes, I've really seen this). I do not have a problem with cyclists in general, just the unnecessarily reckless ones.

[Gigabyte]

Oh Lard, the texters. That is a whole 'nother level of insanity.

[Van Rijn]

She got what she needed and then moved past us...only to stop in the center of the aisle to consult her coupons. There she stayed, oblivious to us even with a couple of polite "excuse me"s.

My procedure generally is this: First I politely say, "Excuse me" and wait a couple of beats. Then I say, much less politely, "EXCUSE ME! I'D LIKE TO GET THROUGH HERE!" If that doesn't work, sometimes I will bump their cart with mine. When they turn to look, I say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was in the way. Could you move it please?"

[ABR.]

My procedure generally is this: First I politely say, "Excuse me" and wait a couple of beats. Then I say, much less politely, "EXCUSE ME! I'D LIKE TO GET THROUGH HERE!" If that doesn't work, sometimes I will bump their cart with mine. When they turn to look, I say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was in the way. Could you move it please?"

I should have added that had I not had my son with me, I probably would have barked out in my best summer-camp-director-quieting-down-70-rambunctious-kids voice, "MOVE!"

Okay, that might have been a bit extreme. I usually do something similar to what you mentioned. This time, I could tell the person was off in La-La land and wasn't worth engaging in conversation or confrontation.

[Studioguy]

I had a crazy person encounter earlier today. It happened at one of those drug-store clinics where I had to take my son (confirming what we suspected: strep throat). The nurse practitioner had hair that covered her ears, so I didn't notice her Borg device.

She swabbed his throat and set it up for the quick strep test, then started having a discussion with herself:

"That's not going to work...Well, he won't be happy but I just think he needs to do it himself next time...You can do it if you want...Doesn't matter to me...ok..." (probably not verbatim)

I was sitting there comforting my sick 5 year old after that rather uncomfortable swabbing and it sounded to me like there was something wrong with it. Further, I was wondering if she was expecting the little guy to gag himself; or worse, did she expect ME to do it?? I was relieved when she got off the call I didn't realize she was on to begin with and transformed back into the caring nurse lady.

[gzhpcu]

What I particularly like are those persons who stop at the bottom of an elevator, blocking the persons coming down...

[HenrikOlsen]

What I particularly like are those persons who stop at the bottom of an elevator, blocking the persons coming down...

That threw me until I realized it's the English/American thing again.

I normally think of them as escalators.

[Trebuchet]

What I particularly like are those persons who stop at the bottom of an elevator, blocking the persons coming down...

Or the ones who turn into a parking lot and then stop right in the entrance, blocking the way for the poor slob who was following them in and is now crosswise in the middle of a busy street blocking traffic.

As for the ones with the Borg Device in their ear, why do they have to talk so dang LOUD? It's like they expect the person on the other end to hear them without the phone. They'd never talk that loudly if they were holding the phone up to their ear.

[mugaliens]

Not here in Southern Switzerland, which is very latin. If you are a second late when the light turns green, they honk...

And a little further south, in Torino, you'll find they'll honk regardless of what the light says.

[gzhpcu]

Irksome also is when you are speaking to someone in person, and suddenly their cellular rings, they answer, and you are left waiting. Not only among friends, but also a plumber or handyman will get interrupted (and the time gets charged to you...).

The tyranny of the cellular: it can interrupt anytime. If I am with someone, I will quickly look who is calling, and, in most cases, just phone back later (unless it is my wife, in which case I answer right away...).

[kleindoofy]

... As for the ones with the Borg Device in their ear, why do they have to talk so dang LOUD? ...

A few years ago I was riding the bus home. The bus was rather full, but as it normally is in Germany, it was very quiet. Except for this one clown speaking very loudly with his wife(?) on his cell phone. It was a normal, pleasant conversation, but considering the quiet on the bus, it was rather loud. He was either oblivious to the fact or simply didn't care that every single person on the bus was partaking in his conversation.

So, when my stop came up, I had to pass him to get out. As I did, I said to him rather loudly "say 'hi' to her from me." The whole bus started laughing and the guy turned red as a tomato.

[Gandalf223]

Sorry, I missed the question. Had something stuck in my ear...

[gzhpcu]

Say, Robinson, a thought just occured to me: how about those people that continuously keep changing their avatars?

[Gigabyte]

They are quite mad of course.

[LaurelHS]

A few years ago I was riding the bus home. The bus was rather full, but as it normally is in Germany, it was very quiet. Except for this one clown speaking very loudly with his wife(?) on his cell phone. It was a normal, pleasant conversation, but considering the quiet on the bus, it was rather loud. He was either oblivious to the fact or simply didn't care that every single person on the bus was partaking in his conversation.

So, when my stop came up, I had to pass him to get out. As I did, I said to him rather loudly "say 'hi' to her from me." The whole bus started laughing and the guy turned red as a tomato.

One very rude thing I've seen on the bus. There were four seats facing each other. A girl was sitting there with her purse on the seat next to her and her feet casually propped up on the seat across from her. The bus was crowded and several people had to stand. They couldn't get one seat, but this girl was taking up three!

[closetgeek]

I think the point is that we'd just as soon not hear either side of the conversation.

I hate to take the opposing view here but would it be any different if it were just two people having a conversation in public and you can hear it? That's the annoying thing about being in public is that you are at the mercy of those around you. I, personally, see no difference between two people having a conversation in public and one person on the phone. I don't care and I am doing my own thing.

[Tobin Dax]

I hate to take the opposing view here but would it be any different if it were just two people having a conversation in public and you can hear it? That's the annoying thing about being in public is that you are at the mercy of those around you. I, personally, see no difference between two people having a conversation in public and one person on the phone. I don't care and I am doing my own thing.

Actually I think I enjoy hearing the two-sided conversations more. (Eavesdropping while walking for a block on a university campus was quite interesting at times.) I pretty much agree with closetgeek. The annoyance of the one-sided conversations is that you don't know who the single person is talking to. It's even more annoying when you meet up with a friend while they're in the middle of a conversation on an ear device you haven't noticed. That's initially confusing and, IMO, rude.

[Neverfly]

Humans like to sit around making noises at eachother.
It's so popular- they make talk shows out of it.

It's what we are doing right here- right now.