The age of the net and social media has given rise to a lot of fretting about the loss of manners and plebeian courtesy in society . We treat people badly by using far more fast-growing spoken language in online confrontation . We tag people intoTwitterarguments , pulling a non - combatant into digital encounter . When it comes to the chartless territory of online etiquette , we ’re clueless about even the least offensive social action .
Is n’t it nice to think , then , that even the oldest societal activity are just as confusing ? Because there surely is no formula that tells us ifknittingin public is consider rude or perfectly reasonable . certainly , we all gibe that aloud singing Taylor Swift songs in line of work at the DMV deserves some foul looks ( no offense to Taylor ) or that the person cut his toenails at his desk is not really the colleague we want . But what about activities we consider benign ? Knitting is a quiet activity that does n’t invade personal space , after all . Is there much impairment ?
Just because knitting is a sole action — some practitioner might even argue that it ’s fatuous — does n’t mean that it ’s free game . While the person doing it might believe it nothing but muscle retention , outsiders could easily take it as a signal that they ’re deadening or uninteresting [ source : Craft World ] .
take doodling in a notebook . Few of us would detect the behavior troublesome on the tube . It ’s certainly preferred to someone who is obliviously blasting medicine or tarry across three seats [ source : Fitzsimmons ] . If you ’re giving your hitch de force poetry reading at the local bookshop , and you find a person in the first row is trace caricatures of audience phallus as you speak , though , you might find yourself huffing and puffing about the deficiency of politeness in society .
Why ? Because we like to think that there are some activities that merit exclusive aid , and it ’s easy to imagine that knitting , doodling , paint yourfingernailsor perhaps even stare off into blank with your mouth agog is distracting someone from the activity at hand .
So here ’s a good rule of thumb : If you ’re in a public space where knitwork might mean a want of attention — whether it ’s your intent or whether it actually is trouble you — hold off those needles .
