Hey, what’s the deal with annoying people?

Whoa, whoa, whoa… Don’t leave this column just yet. It’s not the beginning of a bad Jerry Seinfeld joke, but it is about the growing lack of courtesy in people today and, specifically, in classrooms here.

Here’s an example. It’s 15 minutes before the end of class and the professor hints at possibly being done with his or her lecture for the day. Automatically, one-by-one, various students all over the room grab their bags, unzip them, grab papers and notebooks, and stuff them in. They start talking to their neighbors while standing up and zipping up their jackets.

This all goes on while the professor continues to talk over the noise, trying to finish up what he or she had planned for the day or had wanted to add in during the allotted time given to them. And rightfully so.

But it’s to no avail. Too many students do this every day in classes, whether they do it without thinking of how rude it is or they just don’t care. Many students seem to not care if others are interested in the subject matter or extra tidbits being discussed further and want to hear what’s being said.

These people don’t care if it’s flat out frustrating to the professor to not be able to finish what they wanted to say or to not be shown respect.

For these people, in the end, it’s all about saving what winds up to be about 15 seconds that helps one fit into their schedule of absolutely nothing.

Some professors take it in stride and end the class, while others flat out tell the class they’re going to use up their allotted time and that the students are being rude.

These professors are absolutely right.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s a pet peeve of mine. It’s even more annoying to me than hearing students say they’re headed down to “Madtown” for the weekend or someone jokingly asking, “Is that your final answer?” It’s even more annoying than Nelly’s “E.I.” song – well, maybe not.

Another example of the growing lack of courtesy is call waiting. There’s nothing better than getting cut off by the person you’re talking on the phone with, whether it’s in the middle of a bad or good conversation, so they can talk to someone on the other line.

“Can you hold on? I want to see if there’s someone more interesting on the other line who wants to talk to me.” The least they could do is put on some cheesy elevator music while you hold.

It’s a momentum killer; an irritating interruption very similar to the coach’s challenge system in the NFL. It’s as if society was told the busy signal could cause phone callers to grow brain tumors from hearing the beeping sound.

This lack of courtesy and communication skills (because communication does work both ways) really seems to be getting worse. These scenarios mentioned are the equivalent to turning your back on someone talking and cutting them off by totally ignoring that person’s very existence.

Believe it or not, I took some advice from actor Charlie Sheen, yes, the actor who used to be known as a wild partyer and drug addict who put a lot of money into the infamous Heidi Fleiss prostitution business. As he said in a documentary on his life (on the E! channel, of course), he cannot tolerate people who don’t even bother to look up and acknowledge, at least, the presence of waiters or waitresses in restaurants – fellow human beings.

It is a matter of respect. When the tables are turned, one’s view on how they treat others always seems to change.