Top 10 Pet Peeves

In modern society, all but a few of us spend a significant amount of time behind the wheel of a car, surrounded by other people in their cars. The only thing that keeps us all safe are the agreed upon rules we all abide by. But sometimes, it feels like you are the only person on the road who knows what you’re doing, doesn’t it? When someone in front of you engages his brakes and begins to turn without using his signals, it’s truly infuriating. Also infuriating: people who choose to flip on the signal mid-turn. What’s the point?

Many people would agree that basic manners have eroded over the years – much to the chagrin of many of us. It seems reasonable that when someone asks something of you that they should say “please,” and if you do aid them they could at least acknowledge your effort with a “thank you.” So, when someone can’t be bothered to even open their mouth in appreciation of their fellow man, it makes perfect sense that it would arouse the anger of the spurned party. Right?

As children in school, we are routinely forced to stand in an orderly line and oftentimes if we don’t respect the integrity of the line or try to cut in front of others, we will quickly face repercussions. As we get older, there’s no one around to enforce the rules, and some people take advantage of that. Whether they think everyone else in the line is a chump or whether they think their time is more valuable than everyone else’s, when someone joins the line midstream and makes your wait that much longer, it’s completely aggravating.

Whether in an airplane or a movie theater, when you’re trying to relax and enjoy your surroundings and the person behind you kicks the back of your seat, it completely disrupts your experience. The first few times it happens, you can try to chalk it up as a mistake or attempt to ignore it; but once it exceeds that threshold it’s nearly impossible to prevent the irritation from growing inside of you. It’s no surprise that over the years there have been many fights that have begun with this inconsiderate act.

It’s hard to decide which is worse: people who speak or write so poorly they’re difficult to understand, or people who jump at the opportunity to correct them. We’re not going to choose. If you‘re trying to make a point and you don’t understand the nuances between the various spellings of the word “there,” for instance, there (T-H-E-R-E) is a good chance those of us who do get it are cringing. On the other hand, if you respond to a grammatically challenged statement just to explain why it’s wrong, we all understand you just want everyone to know how much better than them you are. And yes, we realize the irony of us pointing out poor grammar AND how annoying it is when people point out poor grammar.

The group of people who feel the need to engage in conversations or phone calls in public so loudly that the rest of us have no chance to ignore them are absolutely vexing. The rest of us do not care about what you and your friend are up to or what you have to say to each other. Seemingly unaware that there are other people in this world, these folks will never realize how much they annoy everyone around them. The worst offenders of all might just be Bluetooth users, ‘cause you can’t even see the phone!

This one is almost inexplicable. There are some things you’re supposed to do in the privacy of your own home. Clipping your nails is one of those things – at least, that’s how the civilized among us see it. In fact, most of us save this for the bathroom only, as we recognize that no one wants to see that. Or even worse, no one wants to be caught in the crossfire of someone else’s stray clippings. So when somebody decides to use a public space to complete this private task, or even to bite their nails it – rightfully – bothers everyone else around them.

Sometimes, movies are hard to understand – we get it. In those cases, you may feel compelled to interrupt someone around you in the theater so they’ll explain it to you. Don’t. Those around you may not be as confused as you and probably don’t want to hear your questions even if they’re not. Even worse is if you’re just bored or indifferent to the film in front of you and just can’t help but comment or yak on your cell phone. If that’s your deal, we have one request: just leave. We came here to listen to the movie, not you.

When you find yourself stuck behind a slow walker who’s impeding your path and is completely ambivalent to it, you may want to snap. For some reason, this seems to consistently happen every time you enter a Wal-Mart. If you lack the ability to speed up for any number of reasons, then fine; but if you’re indifferent to those behind you, it just pisses us off. While we’re at it, people who stop suddenly while walking, or groups of people who are walking in a horizontal line and don’t move when there’s someone coming are just as bad.

Before we annoy you with our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

- People Looking Over Your Shoulder
- Tangled Earphone Cords
- People Who Step on the Back of Your Shoe
- People Who Are Know-It-Alls
- People Who Are Always Super Late

There’s nothing more annoying than when you’re trying to enjoy a meal, and you can hear or see every bite someone else is taking. Whereas many of the pet peeves on this list are based on your reaction to someone else’s reasonable actions, this one is more about other people lacking table manners than you being a crazy person. We will always be disgusted by the sound of someone chewing loudly – be it food or gum. And don’t even get us started on how icky it is to see your chewed up food bits in your mouth or on your lips – gross, just gross.

Do you agree with our list? Who’s your biggest pet peeve? For more not-so-annoying top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com