From one-upping people’s stories to being an obnoxious train passenger, we count 10
things you do that make people hate you.
10 - One-Upping • If someone tells you how cute their pet
dog is, and you immediately show them pictures of your taller, more handsome dog, you could
be making people hate you.
• ‘One-upping’ is something people do in order to show off and assert their superiority
over other people.
No matter what cool story you have to tell, a ‘one-upper’ will always have a story
better than yours.
They don’t like it when other people are in the spotlight because they’re totally
insecure about themselves.
• Sure, you might have done some cool stuff in your life, but chill out and let other
people feel important.
9 – Walking Slowly • A rapid-fire way to make strangers instantly
want to punch you in your face is by walking in front of them - really slowly.
• If you decide to go for a slow, pleasant amble through the streets of any city at rush
hour, you might find the scurrying crowds giving you some serious evil-eye.
Even the most patient and friendly people can instantly morph into raging assholes when
somebody is blocking the footpath.
For the love of god!
Just move to one side!
• In fact, the sight of anyone doing anything slowly when you’re in a rush is unbearable.
Eat your goddamn sandwich faster, don’t you know I’ve got deadlines to meet!?
8 – Correcting People’s Grammar • A recent study has revealed that if this
image annoys the crap out of you, you might actually be a total jerk.
• People who constantly correct other peoples’ grammar have been associated with negative
personality traits like close-mindedness and being overly disagreeable.
People just don’t like to be told they’re wrong – surprise surprise.
In an age of auto-correct, Googling and spell-checkers you kinda have to go out of your way to spell
things wrong these days.
• Call me a jerk, but language should be considered a precious, sacred tool – not
a toilet for your keyboards. 7 – Being an Activist
• Speaking of trouble-makers, if you believe in something so much that you won’t rest
until every man, woman and child knows your opinion – you could be making people hate
you.
• Whether it’s feminism, religion, animal rights or your favourite character on ‘Friends’,
no one likes to have opinions shoved down their throat.
Activists are seen as troublemakers, but you can thank those same rebellious activists
for fighting for things like equal-rights, abolishing slavery and saving the environment.
• Unfortunately, no one likes to be told what to do, even if they know it’s the right
thing to do.
6 –Talking Too Much • Knowing when someone is interested in
your stories, or whether they’re just being polite is a pretty important social skill.
• People who can’t tell when they’re boring somebody to death, and insist on telling
you every detail of that whacky dream they once had about a pile of string and a bus
stop, are annoying as hell.
• Body language isn’t that hard to read, especially if the person you’re talking
to starts to walk away or fall asleep.
5 – Condescending Nicknames • There are certain ways you can talk to
people that are virtually guaranteed to make them hate you.
• Getting called names like ‘Sweetie’, ‘Honey’, or even ‘Buddy’ can be hugely
infuriating, especially when you don’t know the person that well.
These are terms that parents often use on children, and can be incredibly patronising
to hear as an adult.
It’s a very passive aggressive and condescending way to assert your power over someone by addressing
them as ‘Darling’ ‘Junior, or ‘Sport’ • Being treated like an inferior person
is almost as bad as being ‘shooshed’ as an adult.
4 – Being Successful • If you post photos of yourself online
having an awesome time in life, you might find your friends and family start to resent
you.
• For some people, seeing others doing well for themselves stirs up intense jealousy or
envy.
Photos on Facebook of you standing on the top of Mt.
Everest or with your new Lamborghini that you just purchased are bound to make people
think you’re showing off.
• Taylor Swift would postulate that haters are in fact, always going to hate, hate, hate.
3 – Vague Status Updates • Speaking of Facebook etiquette, your status
updates may very well be making you a publicly disliked personality.
• People who post scathing, accusatory statuses aimed at nobody in particular are frequently
unsubscribed by their online friends.
Making vague statuses such as, ‘some people just can’t take a hint’ or ‘trust is
something you have to earn’ make you seem like a very passive aggressive person, and
also very childish.
• Coincidentally, these friends are often the same people who post cheesey motivational
posters with quotes and use emoticons instead of actual words.
2 – Chewing Loudly • One of the most inexplicably annoying
things someone can do takes place at every dinner table around the world.
• The absolutely revolting sounds of a person eating, chewing, slurping or crunching is
described as a condition called Misophonia – the hatred of ordinary sounds.
Some people are completely incapable of eating with their mouths closed, letting the whole
room share the saliva-splashing sounds of their teeth and oesophagus feasting on some
sloppy spaghetti.
Or the unbearable noises of someone eating a high-definition apple or smacking their
godforsaken chewing gum.
• Put the damn sustenance in your mouth hole – close your high-volume lips and eat
in silence like the rest of us.
1 – Hogging Train Seats • There are plenty of things you can do
on trains and buses that will instantly flag you as the most obnoxious person on board.
• People who put their bags on the seat next to them when it’s busy so that no one
else can sit down are just the rudest people ever.
Equally as despicable are those people who don’t get off their arses to let the elderly,
the disabled or pregnant mothers sit down.
No one enjoys being on a crowded bus, least of all people who can barely stand.
• If you’ve got your feet up on the other seats, congratulations, I assure you that
no one on that train or bus likes you.