A woman in her 30s who said she lives in the United Kingdom revealed a travel drama involving a so-called "personal space" violation — and why a friend wound up chiding her about her behavior during a recent train ride.
Wrote the woman, "Not a serious or life-altering situation" — but she sought input from others nonetheless because it troubled her.
Describing herself as 33 years old, she said, "We have quiet sections on trains and I booked my ticket specifically so I could do work on a table in the quiet section on my laptop."
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She said her friend, who is 34 years old, "sat opposite me."
She then said that a man who was likely in his 40s or 50s "sat next to me and about 15 minutes into the journey, starts watching ‘Friends’ out loud on his iPad."
The woman she, "I put my headphones in but it was loud enough that I could still hear it."
She went on, "My friend and the person [who] sat next to her were just giving him dirty looks, but he was oblivious and munching away on his sandwich."
The woman from the U.K. described what happened next.
"So I said, ‘Excuse me, would you mind turning that down just a little bit, please?' He said ‘no.’ Literally one word — ’no.'"
The woman said that she then "mentioned that it was the quiet section of the train," yet the man "laughed at me and said, 'Are you going to tell on me?'"
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The woman on Reddit wrote that it "was so bizarre and annoying, but my friend just gestured for me to stay calm and leave it. So I closed my laptop and started watching with him. And commenting."
The woman said that as she now watched along with the man, she said to him, "Omg, I love this bit!"
She also said to him, "Watch the next part, it’s soooooo funny."
She said she continued her running commentary, also saying to him, "Oh, is this the one where X happens?"
She wrote on Reddit, "I’m not a massive ‘Friends’ fan, but I know enough to get by."
She said the man did not respond to her.
He "just kept giving me irritated looks, but I kept going," the woman wrote.
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"He moved the iPad from the table to his lap, without turning the volume lower at any point. So I just carried on peering over his shoulder and commenting."
Then, she wrote, "he finally slammed the iPad case shut, grabbed his backpack and walked off, presumably to find another seat on the train."
The woman went on to relate, "I opened my laptop and carried on working."
She said that later, after she and her girlfriend had gotten off the train, her friend told her that "I should’ve just left it and not reacted to him."
But it was "a four-hour journey," the woman said, "and I had a lot to do."
Plus, she said, "I paid extra to get a table seat … in the quiet section. She said I could have offered him my headphones."
The woman pushed back on her friend's suggestion and said, "He's a stranger so, no."
The Reddit poster said her friend told her that she "invaded" the man's "personal space" and shouldn't have done what she did.
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However, the woman continued on Reddit, "I didn’t touch him or move from the confines of my seat at any point — and she was like, 'No, but watching someone’s iPad is an a-----e move."
The woman finished with, "We’re not in a fight, just a lighthearted debate on whether or not I’m [in the wrong] for how I went about" the situation.
To date the post has received over 2,300 reactions and more than 300 comments.
Wrote one commenter in reply to the Redditor's post, "I never engage with those kinds of people" on public transportation.
This person continued, "Anyone who is being that blatantly an a-----e in public like that is doing it on purpose and looking for a reaction. Or a fight. And you never know what they’ll do if you give it to them."
Wrote another commenter, "He is a jerk, and you decided to play his game."
Another person on Reddit firmly stood up for the original poster: "You paid extra for your seat and [it's] the quiet zone, [so] snitch away! It's not childish to have work and deadlines. It's [wrong] to break rules on purpose when it is 100% avoidable."
This person also said, "Please don't let your friend tell you otherwise. I know it's a lighthearted discussion, but small conversations like these slowly chip away at your confidence, too."
Another commenter on Reddit was quite emphatic: "Seriously! There is a difference between letting something go and letting people walk all over you. That guy was disrupting other passengers with his behavior. You paid a lot of money for that ticket and quiet space. You had every right to make him leave."
This commenter added, "The other passengers probably hailed you as a hero."
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This individual also said that the woman was not wrong — "and don't let your friend tell you otherwise."
Wrote another person, "I would have gotten the attending person to notice and gotten [the man] kicked off. He should have gotten on a different part of the train. Your friend needs to grow a backbone," this individual added.
Said another commenter, "On Amtrak in the U.S., the conductor will enforce [the rules] and the passengers [will] speak right up and let people know they are in the quiet car and tell them to move if they don’t want to be quiet."
Fox News Digital reached out to New York-based clinical psychologist Dr. Jayme Albin, PhD, for professional insight into the viral travel controversy.
"This is where two wrongs don’t make a right," she said. "Clearly the man was being antagonistic and not responding to the community rules of the train, causing others to consider him a ‘jerk.’"
Added Dr. Albin, "However, I don’t necessarily agree that the woman was invading his personal space. He was breaking that boundary himself by blasting his iPad (and violating the rules)."
She also said, "Sadly, it’s people like this individual who make nice people do unreasonable things."
A man on the East Coast also told Fox News Digital, "I would have no patience with a situation like this. It was the quiet car, period. The man should've abided by the rules."
