Personal space.

How close to other humans you are comfortable being.


I have lived in downtown Toronto for more than forty years but lately I have often felt very bothered with how close to me other people stand and walk.

My guess is that part of this is just that the city is so much more crowded in recent years that there just isn't enough space for people to stay farther away.

Also, in a city full of people from different cultures around the planet many of them come from places where the boundaries of personal space are smaller.

And maybe just being an old person makes me less tolerant of others.


I'm not saying that anyone is "wrong".

I'm just observing one way that the world has changed.
And that it is a way that leaves me even less comfortable functioning in it.