Where Have All the Friendly People Gone?

I'm beginning to think that it's getting increasingly difficult to be friendly.  I remember when people would smile at you in a store or say, "Hi."  I can remember when old men with hula girl tattoos would ask if you wanted to see the girl dance, and then flex their muscles (okay I think that was in a cartoon).  But now people tattooed from head to toe, angrily ask, "What are you looking at?".  I don't know, is it a maze? a mural? a cry for help? I scared to look, but too mesmerized to turn away.  At times, it feels like our culture is becoming a more unfriendly environment.  Let me share some of my evidences with you.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a graduation ceremony.  As we were leaving the building, there were a couple of children holding out their hands as if they wanted to shake hands with the passing crowd.  Just as I was about to reach out and shake the hand of the little boy standing closest to me, I felt him trying to push me forward.  The kids weren't wanting to shake hands.  They trying to push the crowd along.  I found it a bit funny, in spite of the fact that it was rude and disrespectful.

Today, I had to kill some time in a store while the pharmacy filled my prescription.  As I am walking through the aisles, I realized that the blank expression on my face might be interpreted by others as unfriendly.  So I instructed my face muscles to form a smile.  By the looks on faces that I passed, my face muscles must have went for a demented "Joker" smile.  It felt like a normal smile, but it was neither warmly received nor reciprocated.  One older woman turned her cart and scurried away. 

It reminded me of the time I was publicly rebuked by a toddler at Wal-mart.  I got in line behind a lady with two small children.  I love children.  After all I was one and it was a pretty good time in my life.  Plus, they are always saying funny things or doing funny stuff.  Children are great.  Anyway, I'm in line and this little boy looks back at me, so to avoid being rude, I smiled at him.  He looks at me and says something along these lines, "What's wrong with you.  Don't you know your not supposed to look at strangers?".  I didn't know how to respond, so I just dropped my head.

So now I am afraid to smile, speak, or make eye contact, and shaking hands is out of the question.  I am introverted by nature and really shy, so social interaction was never a strong suit.  Actually, I still suffer from a bit of social awkwardness.  And it doesn't help that most of my attempts at improving my social skills, in a public setting, are not met favorably.  But I'll keep trying, maybe my friendliness will rub off on others.

It seems like the world is a harder place than it used to be.  Maybe I am just more engaged than I used to be, so I notice it more.  What about you? Do you find it's getting harder to be friendly?  Maybe it would be better to say, do you find that people aren't as receptive to your friendliness as they used to be?  What do you think?