First World Problems

Cell phones are great and everything, but I really can't stand being forced to listen to strangers' conversations. I find it creepy when I'm in a public restroom and hear a girl talking on her cell phone inside a stall. Is there anything so important, it can't wait five minutes for her to do her business, wash her hands, and exit? I doubt it.

The worst is when you're sharing an elevator with someone and he or she is yakking away as if there's not someone two feet away in an enclosed space. Sometimes being in an elevator can be awkward enough as you listen to muzak, wait to get to your floor, and try to not look at the other people in there with you. When I become an audience for a tirade on clueless boyfriends or unreasonable bosses, rundowns on a person's day and his or her to-do list (so that I'm just as bored as the person on the other line) or even wildly inappropriate stories that make me wonder if I'm in an elevator or a confessional, I start to yearn for the days when private conversations remained private. At least those Nextel walkie-talkie type phones are becoming passe' and texting is taking over.