5 Tiny Annoyances That Feel Like A Personal Attack Every Time They Happen, According To Survey
We're all pretty much unanimous on the worst pet peeves of all.
DimaBerlin | Shutterstock All of us have those little things that drive us absolutely mental. For me, it's loud motorcycles and trucks. First of all, SHUT UP. Second of all, imagine if straight men spent even a fraction of the time they spend making all that effing noise on, say, personal growth. We'd be living in 3025 instead of 2025!
Your bugaboos may vary, of course. And if you've ever wondered what the most common things are that drive Americans crazy, we have good news: The enterprising datahounds at Talker Research actually dug into the issue.
Here are the 5 minor annoyances that make Americans absolutely crazy:
To get to the bottom of this, Talker, with the help of CBDfx, which manufactures anxiety and stress supplements, surveyed 2,000 Americans about the things that most drive them up a wall.
Not the big things, like a partner who doesn't listen or a boss who makes your life miserable, but the little things. The things that most people would probably think shouldn't matter that much, but absolutely, definitely do. You'll probably identify with all of them in a way that makes you want to bash through a wall in a rage like the Kool-Aid Man. (Or is it just me who has these kinds of anger issues?)
And while these annoyances are funny when you look at them in light of the survey, there's an actual, real psychological reason why these tiny inconveniences can sometimes completely derail us. It's called the region-beta paradox. In a nutshell, the theory describes how mild inconveniences can end up becoming more distressing than an actual crisis because when the dilemma is serious, we deal with it right away. When it's just the drip in your shower that your landlord hasn't fixed in months, that stress sort of builds until you reach a breaking point.
1. Seeing someone you don't want to talk to
This is rightfully at #1, with 46% of respondents naming it as their most reviled pet peeve, and they're right because there is truly nothing worse. If the person you see actually sucks then you're filled with resentment at the interruption; if they're a person who's actually lovely, then you're wracked with guilt for not wanting anything to do with them. You cannot win with this!
Even worse is if they're someone with whom you were once friends but you've since drifted apart, because now you have to go through the song and dance of "getting together some time" even though both of you know you will never, ever, in this world or the next, do any such thing. I'd prefer to walk in front of an oncoming freight train. HARD PASS.
2. A knock on the door out of the blue
Now, listen, I'm as nostalgic for the times when people just stopped by and had an impromptu gathering as the next person, but I am nostalgic for this IN THEORY, not in practice. Who does this?! Go away! And 44% of respondents agree with me.
Because without fail, it is always, ALWAYS the moment when you haven't cleaned the bathroom in 40 business days and haven't cleaned your person in 5, the dishes have been in the sink so long they're actually decaying into dust and the only thing you have in your fridge to offer them is rotted Olive Garden leftovers from 2019. Go on, git! Do not knock on my door! GET OFFA MY LAND.
3. People talking to you when you want silence
Andrea Piacquadio | Pexels | Canva Pro
Normalize telling people to shut up! I am a Scorpio stellium with Scandinavian heritage, and so have little patience for beating around various bushes. When people start jabbering at you when all you want is to be left alone, we need to make it culturally acceptable to simply turn to them and say, "If you do not stop talking, I will bludgeon you into a jelly with my shoe and make sure no one misses you." I really don't think that's unreasonable. Growth comes from honesty! Anyway, 43% of respondents said they hate this.
4. Lagging or failing Wi-Fi
Alex Green | Pexels | Canva Pro
This makes me angry. I had to get up and walk around the block before writing this part. I'd like to amend my aforementioned screed about motorcycle and truck drivers. Wi-Fi failures, websites that don't work properly, THESE are actually the worst things in the entire world. Because they're not only inconveniences, but they are inconveniences borne of incompetence.
Wi-Fi has ONE job. Websites? Same. Their entire raison d'être is to WORK. We're not logging onto OpenTable or the doctor's portal because we have an admiration for web layouts! Every day of my existence I can be found shrieking at my laptop "WHO DESIGNED THIS?!" at one time or another.
And to add incredible, astonishing insult to grievous psychic injury, every time your Wi-Fi cuts out, the Wi-Fi company's website also doesn't work, joining these two forces into one unified wave of unforgivable ineptitude that in a functioning society would be grounds for being strapped to a rocket and fired into the sun. And 40% of respondents concur.
5. Loud chewing
Listen, loud chewers, this is a safe space where we act from love, and when you love someone, you tell them the truth. And so I ask you: WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU AND WHO RAISED YOU? Why are you the way that you are?! Simply close your mouth while chewing!
This isn't hard, unless you are a barnyard animal. Are you a barnyard animal? Pretty sure you're an accountant from Des Moines with a condo and a Toyota Corolla, so I'm not really sure why this is such an issue. Please self-report to the nearest prison — and that's coming from 40% of respondents to this survey. Don't kill the messenger, you ill-mannered bovine!
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
