Overhear This

It used to be that the only people who'd admit to eavesdropping were spies or those who'd preface the admission with mollifying words like "Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhearing. . . . "

A conversation at a bar can become immortalized on the Internet.

Those sweet days are gone.

The new generation of eavesdroppers have no qualms about listening in on one another's conversations. When they post these nuggets online, a fleeting moment of conversation at a laundromat or bar may be immortalized on the Internet.

Morgan Friedman, 30, is an expert on prying; he is the founder of the sites Overheard in the Office and Overheard in New York.

"It started when I was sitting in a café in Williamsburg in Brooklyn a few years ago and heard this guy on his cell phone say, 'You ask me how I'm doing, I tell you, and you bring it back to yourself. You always do that,'" recalls Friedman. "I realized I had to start writing these things down."

The overheard conversations on his site range from silly to idiotic to pithy. (Sample: "40 is the new 30; my teacher said that. She said 12 is the new 11. But she used to say 11 was the new 10.") Most have some kind of punch line.

Other sites, however, are more about simply documenting bits of everyday people's conversations, funny or not. The Man Who Fell Asleep records people's conversations on the London Underground, whether they be interesting or banal. Often, they come off sounding like the enigmatic first line of a short story. (Documented discussions on September 1, 2005, included: "Suddenly, everyone is using the word 'polymath,'" "All she ever does is cry," and "I am not a cowboy; I do not ride a steel horse and I'm not wanted dead or alive.") England is also home to OverheardInTheUK.com.

Since 2000, a Berkeley, CA, 20-something writing under the pen name Eve. S. Dropper has been a stealth listener-inner in San Francisco dressing rooms, cafés and doctors' offices. She records her findings at InPassing.org.
Similar sites exist in Philadelphia, Dublin, and Singapore.

Friedman believes the value of these sites can actually raise the quality of our lives. "Listening to other people's conversations allows us to find enjoyment in the little snippets of everyday life," he says. "It makes you see that we're living in reality TV."

Posted on February 27, 2006