How Rude!

I recently read an article online about how forgetting someone's name can be "sublty disrespectful, and by subtly, we mean with a blatant disregard for giving a shit about other people’s feelings." This pretty much sums up the situation. And as someone who has been on both ends of this situation and some others, its pretty annoying. Whether or not the person is doing it intentionally or unintentionally, it can be super insulting. In the words of Stephanie Tanner "How rude!" But seriously, there are some things that people can do that perhaps have no intention of being rude, but really end up being so. Below are a few of these things...

1) "What's your name again?" The classic mentioned above and in the article I mentioned. This is something I rarely will ask someone even though I forget their name. I have too much pride to ask them again if I have already asked once. It shows them I totally didn't listen and/or care the first time they told me. When I first meet someone at a party or a bar and assume I will never speak to or see them again, I really make little effort to remember their name. Bad habit, I know. And the fact that I am usually heavily drinking compounds this problem. However, as the night progresses and we do begin to chat, I will feel embarrassed I don't remember their name so will have a friend find out or introduce themselves so I don't look like the asshole. It's even worse if you are speaking to this person and they are like "hey, do you even remember my name?" and you have no idea. Um yes, this has happened to me. And then I will take a guess or two and maybe be lucky, but usually come off looking like a dick.

2) "Nice to meet you." Um, hi, we have met like five times before. Are you seriously telling me that you have zero recollection of who I am? Get the fuck out of here. Are you that cool? Or that dumb? Regardless, you have proven you are clearly an ginormous douche over and over again. I have done this once and like two seconds after I said it, I realized I had met this person before and felt like a complete jerk and apologized. Honestly, I felt horrible because I think this is so rude. I pride myself on being really good at remembering faces (names not so much) and it is a skill I am actually really good at. Sometimes this can actually be bad because I will see someone once and recognize them randomly on the street and they have no idea who I am. Whatevs. 

3) "Who is this?" This would obviously be in response to a text message from someone you may have met and talked to a few times. This is usually someone of the opposite sex that you had a brief flirtation or even fling with who things just fizzled out with. You probably have already deleted their number from your phone but remembered that this is indeed their number when they randomly text you like nothing happened.  And for the heck of it, and maybe even to make a point to their "hey you", you reply with a "who is this" already knowing exactly who this is. Game point. But being on the other end of this, you are thinking like "WTF, really?" Such a double standard, I know.

Once again, whether these things said (or texted) are meant to be rude or not, they can come off that way. Sometimes it's done intentionally and other times the other person is just really that big of a flake. Either way, I don't approve of it. And I will be the first one to apologize if I am the one who does it. But really, that is usually not the case. Seriously.