"Raise your hand, you ignoramus!"

Those that know me(even on the smallest, semi-personal level) know that I get pretty irritated with people when they have bad manners and social skills. Honestly, it drives me crazy.

Case-in-point: how old were we when we were taught that when you want to say something in class, you raise your hand? 5 or 6, right? Ok. Now, we typically start college at the age of 18. That means that by the time we get to college, we should've been raising our hands for 12 or 13 years. You'd think that that would be more than enough time for a person to learn that when you want to say something in a classroom, the social norm(with the occasional, but seldom exception) is to raise your hand when you've got something to say.

There is this kid in one of my classes that, somehow or another, has not learned this. The other day we were discussing something in class and I raised my hand to make a comment. The professor called on me and two or three words into my contribution, homeboy opens his mouth and goes off on some point which we(the class) had already finished discussing. So not only did he blatantly interrupt me, but did it by rehashing some point that none of us cared about anymore.

I saw red.

I like to think I'm pretty self-aware. Meaning I know when to shut my mouth, when to change the subject, when to open my mouth, when to smile, when to move on, etc. Pretty much everyone does. But there are those few individuals that are so self-ignorant that they can't step back and look at their behaviors and see the room for improvement.

Second example - people that don't know how to whisper. I was in the library this morning, reading, getting stuff done and a cell phone went off. So is it not equally common knowledge that you keep your voice down in a library? I mean honestly - am I the one that has been falsely informed all these years about the whole axiom of "library = quiet area" ? No, I'm not and I know that. So when this phone goes off, why does it's owner answer as if he's in a sports bar? Well, I'll tell you why. Because he's an idiot.

I hate confrontation. Which is probably why I end up moaning about things until I reach the point of having to post my thoughts here to see if anyone agrees with me. Let the comments begin.