I have been flying on airplanes for the better part of my adult life. And recently I have noticed what I would call ‘flight defiance’. Which is people not turning off their cell phones or other electronics and others budding in line ahead of their departure sequence. Y’know when you exit by your row, you wait for the people in the row ahead of you to collect their things and get off? Nope, the climate seems to have changed, that if you don’t leap up and grab your rightful space the person behind you may beat you to it and not let you in. I don’t get it.
What’s the charm in ‘not turning off’ your phone? One guy last fall actually answered it when it rang during take-off, no joke. Let’s say it does put the flight at risk, are you really choosing to put everyone else on that flight including children in danger because you want the ability to check what exactly, the time? Get a watch.
What is about people that we become defiant and ignore rules or chose the ones we want to follow or not follow or change? When does it become about us and not all of us? Are we in that much of a hurry, really?
It perplexing to me that something so simple as being courteous is easily tossed to exit the plane 1.23 minutes earlier than if you had played fairly. What I see very clearly is that one person stands and starts the trend, the others just follow because when one person decides to break the rules we fall in line because we now have someone to blame other than ourselves. You do know that no matter who starts the trend you are still responsible for your own actions right? That you are in charge of you and how you act or don’t react. That as a leader for your staff or your friends or your family the ‘trend’ you start is a neon sign of what you agree is acceptable?
I say let’s get better, let’s change the trend, bring back niceness…make it the new black.
