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I hate that. It's the same as people starting a sentence with "I'm sorry, but..." And then saying something that they're not really sorry about.

It's not silly to not want someone to touch your screen. I think you should just come out and say it. "Please don't touch my monitor."

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Personally I would use the "I'm sorry, but..." approach because I'd be legitimately sorry that I have to take conversation into an awkward direction for a moment. I think the direct approach, while some would appreciate it, is taking a bit of a gamble: there's too much of a chance the person could take it the wrong way.

I have a theory, it may be way off, but are you an American?

Starting a sentence with "I'm sorry, but..." is a very British thing to do, in my observation (and Bill Bryson's, for that matter).

This is what I do, and it's never a problem. The reasons why you wouldn't want somebody touching your scren are pretty obvious. I'm not apologizing to someone else for /them/ smudging their filthy hand marks all over /my/ screen!

There's a "please", it's not like it's rude...

I would drop the please and just say "Oh, could you not touch the screen" and then explain why.

I have a theory, it may be way off, but are you an American?

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