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Re:The War on the Walkman by II2II on Sunday July 06, 2025 @12:06PM (#44481900)
There will always be some people who don't want to talk to strangers, but how much of what we experience is due to social conditioning?

As for women who don't want to be approached, harassment is an entirely different issue. Just because talking to strangers and harassing women were more acceptable in the past doesn't mean that one follows from the other.

Re:The War on the Walkman by brookst on Sunday July 06, 2025 @12:23PM (#44482031)
There are just a lot more people now. It would be exhausting to try to talk to everyone one runs across in a day. 100 years ago, that was not true.
Re:The War on the Walkman by adrianN on Sunday July 06, 2025 @01:34PM (#44482571)
Two hundred years ago London already had 1.4M inhabitants.
Re:The War on the Walkman by t-3 on Sunday July 06, 2025 @12:39PM (#44482144)
> As for women who don't want to be approached, harassment is an entirely different issue. Just because talking to strangers and harassing women were more acceptable in the past doesn't mean that one follows from the other.

Unwanted advances, whether sexual, social, or commercial in nature, are all harassment. They all make the recipient uncomfortable, and others should be able to identify and respect anti-openness signaling like wearing earbuds or not sustaining eye contact.

Re:The War on the Walkman by potato3732842 on Monday July 07, 2025 @08:09AM (#44489514)
>Unwanted advances, whether sexual, social, or commercial in nature, are all harassment.

I'll be sure to tell the Jehovah's Witnesses and floozies that they have selling solar that they're harassing me.

When everything is "harassment" nothing is.

Re:The War on the Walkman by wkat4242 on Monday July 07, 2025 @11:43AM (#44491525)
> I'll be sure to tell the Jehovah's Witnesses and floozies that they have selling solar that they're harassing me.

Well, I absolutely 100% consider these types harrassing yes. The indicative parts is that they are 100% selfish in their reasons to contact (the jehovah's want to make themselves feel good by spreading their religion, the sellers want income). There's zero in it for me, there is zero consideration for me. I'm just a target for their gratification.

And they have no interest in my objections. I don't even open the door anymore to people I don't know because it's always bad news.

Re:The War on the Walkman by mystified5016 on Monday July 07, 2025 @08:29PM (#44495870)
The shitty salesman who won't leave your stoop is harassment. Religious evangalists who keep coming to your door after you tell them to stop is harassment.

When someone tells you to stop and go away and you refuse, that is harassment.

Re:The War on the Walkman by tomjen3 on Sunday July 06, 2025 @02:02PM (#44482749)
There are strangers I would like to talk to. It is just that most strangers are not someone I would like to talk to - if I wanted to talk to somebody I could just remove my airpods.

This isn't part of the social conditioning, it is because most people are not very interesting.