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veloharris t1_ixys99u wrote

It didn't use to be this bad. This is a post COVID phenomenon, additionally people have become phone addicted in a way that wasn't true just a few years ago.

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sagarnola89 t1_ixzyu4r wrote

Ya if you ever want to be depressed, sit on the metro when it's on I-66 and observe how many of the drivers on the highway are on their phones. It's literally more than half.

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veloharris t1_iy02wyl wrote

Just go to any intersection with a traffic light. I'll bet you 70% of the time or more the person at the front of the line will take 5 secs or more to notice the green light and actually move, because they're on their phone. I never remember honking at an intersection when the light turned green pre-covid. Now it's atleast once per car trip.

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sagarnola89 t1_iy03hcm wrote

True. That's bad, but that bothers me less than the thousands of people driving 75 mph on the highway while straight up playing on their phones.

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well-that-was-fast t1_iya7bk0 wrote

> It didn't use to be this bad. This is a post COVID phenomenon,

Stress from things changing related to covid have people acting out in many public ways -- at restaurants, retail stores, and when driving.

The US doesn't have a lot of mental health resources and it's going to be a long haul to get back to something approximating 'normal' public space behavior.

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