Cool Or Not Cool: V-Chatting In a Coffee Shop?

The other day I was working in a coffee shop when I noticed that the woman across from me had stopped typing on her own laptop. She was staring off into space. Her eyebrows were furrowed. Her lips were pursed sphincter-tight. This woman. Was. Pissed. 

At first I thought it was me -- Was I typing too loud? Did I smell weird? I took off my headphones and was immediately hit with the source of her anger: The woman sitting BEHIND the woman across from me was videochatting with someone. Loudly. She was wearing iPhone headphones so we could only hear her half of the conversation, which was the boring, reactionary side of a juicy gossip tale.

"Get out!" the v-chatter shrieked. "That's the craziest thing I've heard. Like, ever." 

The woman across from me took long, hard breaths. We made eye contact and she gestured to the chatty Kathy behind her.

"For fuck's sake," she spat. "I can't concentrate." 

"Haha," I replied. I did not laugh. I awkwardly said the words "HA-HA." I put my headphones on and went back to work.

OK, this woman was mad. But did she have any right to be?

Screaming babies, a study group, a few friends holding conversation on a couch -- it's expected noise when one ventures out into public, right? The day I decided that I was going to be productive in coffee shops and on Bolt Buses I purchased noise-canceling headphones. This turns every talker and screamer -- any potential auditory disctraction, really -- into a muted mime. So this isn't an issue for me.

Maybe it's the idea of only being able to hear one side of the conversation. Maybe people speak more loudly when conversing with someone who isn't sitting beside them. If the videochatter was perched on a nearby couch having the same chat in person maybe it wouldn't have been as noticeable.

I'm reminded of that Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry's dining alone and flips out on a man at the next table who is blabbing into a bluetooth. Larry begins talking to himself, and the guy gets off his call and tells Larry that he's being very loud.

"To the outside observer," Larry explains. "It's the same level of annoyance." 

What do you guys think? V-chatting in coffee shops, or anywhere in public, really -- Cool or not cool?