May we borrow a moment of your time to review basic niceties? You might think you’ve heard them all before—because you have—but certain polite lingo is dropping out of the modern lexicon. That’s bad news for everyone, experts agree.

“It’s really important to mind our manners—and I don't say that as a scold, but I do say it with encouragement,” says Lizzie Post, co-president of the Emily Post Institute (and great-great-granddaughter of renowned etiquette expert Emily Post). “It’s so amazing how good manners can make such an impact on other people’s days—and they catch like wildlife. That person holds the door for you, and you hold the door for the person behind you. It breaks the cycle of stress and rudeness and lack of awareness of others.”

In order to coexist as peacefully as possible

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