Bad manners and attitude

According to Oxford learner's dictionary, manners are behavior that is considered to be polite in a particular society or culture. Attitude is the way that you think and feel about somebody/something; the way that you behave towards somebody/something that shows how you think and feels.

Bad manners and negative attitude has become a norm in society today and most people now see it as "cool" if you're mannerless. Here in Nigeria, fans of a popular musician known as naira marley call themselves marlians, and one of their mottos is "no manners".

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An incident happened in school yesterday that inspired me to write this article. As I have said in my previous articles, I am currently doing my industrial training (IT) and as a fisheries student, it starts with managing the school's fish farm.

We have a regular farm manager at the fish farm and one of the rules he gave was that we should always wear our farm coat before entering the farm but some persons choose to break that rule.

The farm manager then decided one day that anybody caught without a farm coat will be sent out of the farm. Rules are meant to be broken, and this one got broken by some persons.

They ended up getting sent out of the farm, but they are pardoned after pleading with the manager. Yesterday, a boy broke the farm coat rule and when the manager tried to send him out of the farm, he refused! 😀

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All of us were a bit surprised because nobody has ever challenged the manager that way. The boy kept ranting that he has every right to be on the farm but in the end, he finally gave up and said he will come back when it's time for class

We had a class scheduled that morning with a lecturer which will be held at the farm. When it was time for the class, we all assembled and I noticed that the lecturer was talking with the farm manager.

After a while, they both approached us and that's when I noticed the rude boy was sitting in the class. The lecturer spoke about the issue and she told the boy to leave her class and go settle things with the manager.

The boy left and came back after a while with the manager storming right behind him, looks like the trouble has escalated. The manager came and said the boy is still raising his voice at him and kept saying he doesn't want to cause a scene.

That was the last straw, the lecturer got angry and said to the boy; "you have very bad manners and are also disrespectful, even after I told you to go sort things out with the manager, you still went there to cause trouble".

She still sent him out of the class and said he shouldn't return until he settles things with the manager. After that, she gave us a very long sermon on the need to respect everyone and cultivate good manners.

Can you see the problem with the above issue? The boy has a very high ego, is disrespectful, and has no manners. His attitude towards the farm manager is uncalled for when he knows he actually broke the rules.

He later came back to the class and the farm manager whispered something to the lecturer which made me believe the issue has been settled. Why did the boy have to go through all that stress when he knows he is still going to apologize at the end?

A simple apology and some pleas are more than enough for the manager to spare him from being sent out of the farm, but he decided to feed his ego and displayed a very rude attitude.

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I have noticed this same issue a lot of time and sometimes the mother of the mannerless person is at the receiving end. I have seen a couple of cases where teenagers are being downright rude to their parents and other elders.

I can't stand the sight of seeing a teenager insulting someone old enough to be their mother or father, I actually feel embarrassed and heartbroken whenever I come across a scene like that

I feel this issue escalated because of the evolution of the internet and social media because I remember back when I was growing up, I hardly hear issues like this.

I do know that bad manners and negative issues have been in existence right from time, but the frequency isn't as high as what we have these days. The internet has made it possible that all social vices are now been widespread and even celebrated.

Being rude and mannerless is now been regarded as cool, and the person involved is hailed as someone that can't be intimidated.

Closing thoughts

Whenever I see someone displaying his bad manners and attitude in public, I actually blame it on the parents because I feel they didn't instill good manners in their children.

One thing I have noticed with people with their bad behavior is that they are usually spoiled as a kid, their parents do let them off easily whenever they are being rude and the usual excuse I hear is; "he is just a child" or "she's just a child", for how long will they continue to be a child.

It takes nothing from you to be polite and respectful to everyone you come across, a simple smile can help to diffuse a very dicey situation. A lot of people have lost good opportunities because of their attitude, and things would have been a lot easier if they behaved the right way

I will end this article with a very popular quote:

A bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you don’t change it, you won’t go anywhere - Joyce Meyer.

Side note

I won't be very active for now because I have an exam to prepare for in just 10 days, and the worst thing is I haven't even started reading 🙈 I want to reduce my activities online so I can focus on my studies 😉

Thanks for reading

Wednesday November 17, 2021