5 things that used to be basic manners - but people no longer do

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Is chivalry really dead?

People love to complain about the death of manners.

When we talk about modern manners, we seem to always wax nostalgic about how folks were more polite "back in the day." It's unclear where that means things were better in the 1870s, the 1950s, or just the era before smart phones.

Either way, from what you read about the kids these days, it seems the good times are long behind us.

The problem is, all of that is most likely bunk.

The British Psychological Society released an report in 2016 indicating that people might just perceive more rudeness from strangers nowadays - because we're kind of full of ourselves.

What we're truly discussing is the decline of formality, which can't necessarily be conflated with good manners - or basic human decency. People have always been nice and rude, and just about everything in between. Manners simply change with time and context.

Here are some old-fashioned manners that have fallen by the wayside: