I suppose, in many ways, it’s thoroughly hypocritical of me to comment on cell phone use in public. I, too, am guilty of taking calls in places other than the privacy of … well, of somewhere. I do, however, make attempts to keep these conversations brief (unless I’m walking across campus alone at 2 a.m., in which case I might take pains to lengthen it) in the interest of sparing those around me. I also refrain from personal conversations that really aren’t of a general-interest kind of subject matter.

It’s nice that in the world in which we live in, people are quite comfortable with having complete strangers hear about their personal affairs.

I guess.

Despite this trend, it still makes me uncomfortable to overhear certain snippets of what seem to be intensely personal discussions.

For example, while standing around in a store recently, in the span of 30 seconds, I managed to be privy to one woman’s discussion about the insecurity of her friend and the sexual tendencies of the man this friend was dating, concluding with, “He’s not a ghetto booty kinda man anyway.” Well, doesn’t that just warm my heart?

No, it doesn’t.

Look, I’m not out to eavesdrop. Not on complete strangers, anyway. I can’t help the fact that you’re standing a yard away and yelling into your phone. If you don’t want me to listen, ask if you can call back. Go to a desert isle if it’s important. I really don’t care, just don’t get mad at me when I’m staring at you in open-mouthed shock because of something you just said. (Subtlety is not necessarily one of my strongest character traits.)

It’s also fairly annoying when you have a roommate that talks (loudly) on his or her phone in the room. One of my friends’ roommates did this in a most obnoxious fashion at all hours, with complete disrespect for whatever activity (namely, studying) that my friend was engaged in.

I recommend a strict “leave-the-room” policy for cell phones. There are hallways, corners and stairwells you can talk in. Don’t make your roommate suffer. The same goes for public places. As amusing as it may sometimes be to come in at the wrong part of someone’s particularly odd conversation, I’d rather not hear any of it.

And by the way, if you’re ever in the silent North Reading Room of Bartle and your phone goes off on anything louder than vibrate, I will do something inappropriate with your phone, involving duct tape and you. Try and figure that one out. Or, instead, just please be polite.

Molly Ariotti is a freshman political science major, and she’s really not kidding about the duct tape.