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Yeah, I've noticed too. But I also do see some young people with good manners, thank god. As I currently work in a grocery store, I experience a lot of human interaction every day, and at least in my local community the kids aren't too impolite. (Doesn't mean they aren't annoying little snotrags sometimes though...)

And I try my best to be kind and helpful, both at work and otherwise. I sometimes help elderly people bring their groceries to their cars (once a younger family member was sitting in the car waiting??) and holding open doors for people (that is a gender neutral responsibility in my opinion). But I have noticed that people seem very surprised when people are kind to them? Like it's totally unexpected? And they also seem like they don't want to be helped too, as if they're a bit embarrassed or something.

What? That was uncalled for!

If anyone compliments me, just end up just blushing/giggling, but at least I thank them. It actually happened today at work. The person was a foreigner (no idea where from) who told me he was learning Norwegian, and he told me my tattoo was cool. It made me really happy! It was adorable when he tried to explain it to me in his few words.

I feel like the culture of chivalry varies from country to country, also people from big cities seem less polite. Maybe because they all tend to avoid talking to strangers and stuff... I dunno, I'm from a tiny town.

I'm a Woman.
I hold doors open for people.
The Majority of people are rude as all hell.
It's not just young kids, yeah the young ones sometimes stare at you like you owe them money/are trying to murder them or something but the older ones (I'm talking 40's-50's so not really that old) also act like this, sometimes they act as if it's your job to hold doors open for them.
People are just rude nowadays with no sense of common courtesy.

The rudest thing is when seemingly there's no one around and you open the door for yourself, and before you can open the door all the way someone bolts through the crack of the door.

There's no longer a sense of regard for other people. It's as if more and more, the world has become a selfish pessimistic place where certain people either expect everyone to cater to them or think everyone's out to get them.

Other peeves that fall into this category include:

~ When you see people treating wait staff like crap

~ Holding elevators for people with similar situations as the door thing only with more people being vocally irritated (don't you tsk at me guy/girl who's going one floor up yet doesn't want to wait for people to get in)

edit: The not helping a pregnant woman thing is pretty bad. But people are also wary because you don't know when your kindness will backfire on you. I get cursed out on buses and trains sometimes when I stand up for an older person to sit. In these instances they jump to the conclusion that i'm calling them old and are apparently angered by it.

*nods* yep.
Most of the time people are nice, they'll sit and thank you, or tell a mother to put her child in the seat instead which is still good.
It's the ones that curse at you who are just emotion_facepalm

I have noticed that.

It's why my mom and I have been working really hard to make sure my little brother grows up knowing respect and decency.

It's ok, he is basically like that naturally. He has some issues, but we always get people telling us how we've got a little gentleman with us. The kid would probably be a doorman the whole time we were shopping if we let him.

I'm a woman and I hold open doors and when someone drops their things I take the time to help them pick everything up. I give smiles whenever possible. When I had a job I was the one always offering to carry out things for people and loading things for people. I grew up being told you respect people, you call them sir or ma'am as a sign of respect. You thank people for compliments or for help, or when they do something for you. You say please.

Nowadays I get people snapping at me for it. Specially in the bigger cities, it isnt so much now that Im back home in a small town. You can't compliment someone or give a kid a quarter for a candy machine without apparently being a psycho.

I mean yesterday I hit some ice and couldn't stop, went off the side of the road with my grandma and stopped at a really rediculous angle, somewhere between 45 degrees and 90 (closer to 90, I was almost at a vertical angle) only one guy stopped and made sure we were ok, made sure I had the police on the phone, made sure we were warm enough. He even stuck around until the police showed up. I saw a handful of people just driving past. It was rather heartbreaking.

Thank the stars for that one kind samaritan. Did everything turn out okay?

At my university we usually end up fighting over who's going to hold the door open for the other and racing to the second set of doors to beat the other to it. It's great. No courtesy issue there, haha.