I’m not OP but similar in age and remember when it wasn’t always like that. You could talk to someone who was reading the paper on the bus, they wouldn’t be annoyed. Being in public it was fair game. There would be conversations happening between strangers. Now it’s silent on the bus and everyone is on their phones nobody is chatting up strangers.
Can confirm. Also of the same age, and if I was at a cafe reading a book or doing my math homework when I was younger, it was totally fair game for someone to ask me something or engage me in random conversation. If I was really on a deadline and couldn't be interrupted I wouldn't have been at the cafe in the first place.
