Originally Posted by
librarygal
[...]There is nothing to see out the window as we were flying over the ocean.[...]
Here, IMO, is the problem - the assumption that there is nothing to see out the window. One who truly enjoys flying realizes this is never the case. One can always enjoy the beauty of the clouds, celestial bodies, and waves; likewise, one can also note specific weather patterns such as fronts, rains, and lightening. Often times there are contrails to study and contemplate as well. On occasion there are other aircraft (or even birds) to watch; at the right position there are land masses and boats to observe too.
Rudeness comes, IMO, not from opening the shade but closing it. Shades should be lowered only when parked so as to keep hot sun out or likewise in flight when the outside sun is too bright for one's eyes to be medically comfortable.
Originally Posted by
librarygal
[...]Everyone was playing by the rules except the man at the window seat in my row. (I was at the aisle two seats from him) He kept opening up his window shade to take a look outside. It flooded the airline cabin with light disturbing everyone and waking them up. He must have opened his window shade 20 times during the four hour period after lunch and decent towards landing.
I and the other people around the man told him he was being rude but he did not acknowledge me or anyone else.
What rules were being violated? Can you site any law or regulation, either European or US, which prohibits windows from being used for their intended purpose - viz. to look through? I think not. It is, perhaps, a bit presumptuous to invent rules which favor one's own desires against the reasonable desires of another passenger.
Passengers who wish to sleep during flight should be prepared to either do so with light or while using an eye-mask.