Yeah, on the other hand, I recently was looking for an old land cruiser and got in touch with a local guy on facebook. Knew I wanted it and sent him 1k to hold the car for me for a few days until I could rent a trailer. He did so and I picked up the suv without a hitch.
I'd never do this in Los Angeles where I live part time.
I context switch based on which home I'm at, North Georgia or Los Angeles.
That's a very good analysis, so much it seems obvious in retrospect. But I think it misses one other factor: I've witnessed the most rural people to adopt ask-culture when they were guess people before. My gut says this has something to do with social media/smartphones but idk.
The person on the corner asking “excuse me sir may I please ask you a question” almost certainly has ulterior motives. Locals in a busy neighborhood ignore a guy like that a few times a day.
But the person on the corner who says “hey which way is the 7 train?” with no preamble is gonna get good answers, despite being less traditionally polite.
Where there is constant stimulation, the cultural norms get a lot more direct