Coffee Shop Talk - Gossip - Identifying Others - Awareness

Here I sit in my local coffee shop using the Internet alone to conduct some quick email responses and searches between appointments on this wet Friday afternoon. I have been coming here off and on for the past five years, and usually, only stopped in for a brief moment. Within the past two months I have been sitting here for a few hours at a time working on homework or other projects away from my home office. Generally, I am by myself, and quiet. Thereby, everyone else's conversations are amplified, laughter echoes, and my lack of headphones evidently keeps me from blocking out the din that surrounds me. So, why don't I just leave and not worry about everyone else's conversations? After all, they are paying guests, just as I am, however, the conversations that I have overheard lately leave me speechless and flabbergasted.

Identity:

I don't know how aware people are, especially in small towns, how viral their conversation can become. What I overhear in the coffee shop when people's names are involved, jobs, illness, financial situations, and so on and so forth, are not what I ever expect to hear so brazenly unfiltered in public. Where are people's filters? How would you react if it was you or a family member being so openly discussed in a very public forum with an echo factor amplifying the conversation? You never know when the next table over will tweet a photo of you, video, or make your topic of conversation their next blog or Facebook post.

Gossip:

What purpose does gossip serve? Aside from posturing one's self as an authority, or the one to be listened to for more juicy details on a hot story, I see no service that gossip provides in the public. This is how people are potentially genuinely harmed. Watch your words for they carry power.

Awareness:

These past two months have really made me aware of what I say, where I say it, and the content and context of what I share. I would find it interesting to record an hour in a coffee shop, and then play back the conversation for those having it. I may have my back to you, but I am not deaf.