Something has shifted in how we behave in public, and it is becoming harder to ignore. Enough time has passed since the pandemic for us to recalibrate, to remember how to exist alongside other people without treating shared space as an obstacle course.

What we are dealing with now is ego. A belief that urgency equals importance, that being seen equals significance, that if someone else moves first, boards first or speaks first, something has been taken from you. It has not. But people behave as if it has.

Take public transport. Doors open and, instead of letting people off, bodies surge forward. People press against bus and train doors as if forcing them open will get them there faster. It does the opposite. It creates delay where there should be flow and wastes everyone’s time, including their own.

Then there is the noise. Speakerphone calls fill entire carriages. Video calls are held inches from faces, as though the internal speaker no longer exists. Conversations about nothing are projected to everyone, because silence is apparently intolerable. Add music played out loud and the city becomes an unwilling audience.

The people giving you dirty looks are not killjoys. They are unwilling participants.

There is also obstruction. People stop in doorways to check their phones. Groups spread across pavements without moving aside. Footpaths are swallowed by people walking shoulder to shoulder, advancing as if the world will part for them. No adjustment. No awareness. No acknowledgement.

Theatres and cinemas are no different. Phones glow mid performance. Feet rest on the backs of seats. Entire meals are consumed as though the point of attending was anything other than watching. Why be there at all if you intend to behave as though you are at home.

Not all of this is new, and not all of it is deliberate. But the cumulative effect is difficult to ignore.

None of this is irrational. Wanting to move through the world without constant obstruction is not unreasonable. Wanting to experience something without intrusion is not snobbish. What is unreasonable is expecting everyone else to absorb your noise, your urgency and your disregard.

This points to a culture that has confused freedom with selfishness and confidence with dominance. Public life only works if we restrain ourselves.

Right now, that balance feels lost.