There are some things that we can all agree that people should not do, especially things that are unhygienic, disproportionately loud, or terribly unkind.
But there are some things that people might do that, while they are technically harmless, will annoy us into oblivion.
Curious about others' pet peeves, Redditor Zinaann_1 asked:
"What's a really harmless thing you judge people for anyway?"
Audible Typing
"Having the sound on their mobile phone keypads switched on so that everyone can hear them typing."
- Zealousideal_Bug7634
"The louder my keyboard is, the happier it makes my brain. The happier my brain is, the more productive I am."
"But I also work from home, so I'm the only one who has to hear it!! I think that's the key takeaway..."
- That_Weird_Girl_107
An Oversized Personal Bubble
"The way they occupy space in public areas."
"People who stop in the middle of the pavement/sidewalk to look at their phone or tie their shoe."
"People who open car doors without looking behind them."
"People who stop at the bottom of escalators or shop doorways."
"People who skew their shopping trolley across the aisle while they stand and gaze at produce in the supermarket."
"Just generally oblivious and inconsiderate people. They're not murdering anyone; they're just making everyone else's lives a little bit more awkward and inconvenient for no reason or benefit whatsoever. And I judge them for it."
- butwhatsmyname
Broken Grammar And Punctuation Rules
"Making a word possessive when it should be plural."
- sharkslots
"These day's especially."
- ptanaka
"It happens A LOT. Don't even, get me started, on unnecessary commas."
- bunbunbooplesnoot
"None of these are as annoying as saying 'should of' instead of 'should have.' Shudder."
- Samantinati_comedy
No Listening Skills
"All talk, no listen. Especially when they're charismatic and funny. You have the honeymoon period of shallow laughter and a lot of one-word affirmations before you realize there's no relationship to be had there."
- DuffShotGod
"Even in platonic relationships. Someone who only talks about themselves makes my eye twitch. The conversation is all one-sided."
"My favorite is when they act surprised that something monumental happened to you later. Well, maybe you should have asked more questions."
- megaspark90
Public Restroom Etiquette
"People who don’t flush in a public bathroom."
- Mikeys_toupee
"There's a special section in hell for people like that. The same goes for people who p**s on the seats or use up all the toilet paper and neglect to inform store staff."
- UnoriginallyGeneric
Waiting In Line At The Grocery Store
"People who get super close to you in the line during checkout… especially when it's not even crowded. I can feel their breath down my neck. Can we please keep the six-foot rule?"
- confusedeverysec
"I back up subtly and slowly into them. Making them more uncomfortable than you are is the way to go."
- rolph4
"Seriously! Can you give me a single f**king minute to put my money in my wallet and move on? Like, back the f**k up. Yeah, this one p**ses me off."
- Pinkflavelon
Coming Through!
"People who walk side by side in public walkways or aisles and either walk slowly or don’t budge for a single person coming the other way."
- ashadetree
"I just stop dead where I'm at and force them to move."
- Sad_Smoke5648
Loud Phone In General
"Having their phones on with loud audio in public. Whether it’s a call or FaceTime on speaker phone, or their YouTube, Instagram, or whatever. I judge the s**t out of the m*rons that do that."
- Key_Cryptographer_99
"Especially when people are watching and flipping through reels on Instagram or TikTok. Every two seconds, it is a new sound and new music, at all kinds of volumes, each more obnoxious than the one before."
"It is the equivalent of flipping through TV channels back in the day, where you stop at each one for a freaking millisecond and flip to the next one. It is the most obnoxious thing ever!!"
- Complex-Profession91
Music, What Are You Doing Here?
"Playing music out loud while on a hike in nature. I want to hear the birds sing, not studio recordings."
- julie178
"Same thing at the beach! I want to hear the waves, not somebody's playlist."
- Difficult_Regret_900
"This! Don't want to observe scenery or possibly see an animal you've never seen in real life before? Walk around your neighborhood instead. Don't want to hear the gulls and waves? Invest in some earpods. Don't come all the way out here and ruin it for the people trying to engage, or the wildlife trying to live here." - haf2go
Forced to Share Food
"When my girlfriend or friends start poking in my food before I had my first poke."
- AlfasonRabbit
"I was casually seeing a guy in college. We went to get pancakes one night, and he reached across the table and syruped my pancakes for me like I was a freaking toddler."
"I was horrified. Sir, you do not know my syrup preferences. How dare you!"
- Joyseekr
"I had a coworker do something similar at a Christmas party. I am a vegetarian, so I got a large baked potato for my main course. No one else did, but they all had steaks."
"I got my potato all ready with butter and sour cream, and before I could take my first bite, he put his fork in and took a bite. Everyone was shocked, and I’ll never forget it."
- lizarddreaming
Elevator Etiquette
"When someone is trying to exit an elevator and the people getting on don't let the people exiting leave the elevator first. And then they get annoyed that the person still has to push through to get off, now harder to do because of more people being in the way."
- Restless__Dreamer
"I deal with this at work ALL THE TIME!!! It’s infuriating!!"
- SpecificDue1512
Unsupervised Children
"Parents who let their spawn just run around like wild animals in stores and restaurants."
- ben-hur-hur
"I miss 24/7 grocery stores. 95% of those stores in my neck of the woods ended those hours when the pandemic hit."
"I did the majority of my shopping in the middle of the night, because I could just take my time without bothering anyone, and there were never kids around."
- UnoriginallyGeneric
"I actually said something once to two older people who were letting their grandchildren run around and scream in a Panera and climb on the doors like a jungle gym while my mom and I were trying to relax with a coffee and a pastry."
"I said something along the lines of, 'Hey, I’m worried about your kids, they’re like hanging off the door, and I’m afraid they’re gonna get hurt, and also we are trying to enjoy some coffee over there, and it’s just too much.'"
"They looked so shocked that someone ACTUALLY said something to them. Well, I’m sorr,y but if you’re gonna be rude, I’m also gonna call you out."
- ashadetree
The Perfect Cup Of Tea
"Tea making. If the teabag and the milk are in the mug at the same time, I'm judging."
- Jellyfish-Wiggle
"I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said the quickest way to make two Englishmen fight is by asking them how to make a cup of tea."
- UnconstrictedEmu
Parasocial Relationships
"It’s one thing to be a fan, but someone who is obsessed with a celebrity, like they talk about the celebrity daily."
- Upset_Put587
"I had a coworker who wrote her bachelor's thesis about Taylor Swift… you dedicate your whole scientific work to a freaking celebrity??"
- Majestic-Buffalo-825
Social Anxiety Spikes
"When people don’t return my greetings. It makes me feel silly."
- ArielSpooky
"This provokes an unreasonable degree of anger in me. I, with my social anxiety, forced myself to say hello, and you can't even deign to respond?"
- perforatum
Each of these items might be harmless in the sense of not causing danger, but it's clear that a lot of Redditors had big feelings about these "harmless" behaviors. So one has to question, if so many people are bothered by them, are these behaviors really so harmless?
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