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35 Times People Overheard Conversations That Were Too Good To Keep Private, So They Shared Them On Twitter
Interview
The popularity of Overheard L.A., San Francisco and New York accounts seems to have awakened the nosy little eavesdroppers within us. Although people say that listening to other private conversations is an impolite thing to do, there’s so much small talk happening in public that sometimes we just can’t help it.
Take a look at how many people shared the meticulously documented conversations they overheard with no context whatsoever. Whether someone’s at the museum, grocery store or working for a 3 billion dollar company, these interactions are equal parts bizarre and hilarious.
We have collected some of the best tweets floating around Twitter, so continue scrolling and upvote your favorite ones. When you’re done with this post, you’ll find some more hilarious quotes right here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Lisa T 3 years ago
Stop stereotyping kids toys! My three adult kids chose what toys they wanted, whether a doll for the boys or nerf guns for my girl. Let kids be and stop pushing your gender agenda on them.
Sam Kunz 3 years ago
Or let boys use nerf guns or girls play with Barbies if they want to. That's ok too!
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Angelar 3 years ago
Fast forward 15 years, the girl is an Air Defense Battle Management System Operator and her mum is complaining that she is not married yet.
Otter 3 years ago
When I was a little girl, I wanted a sword! It didn't have to be sharp or anything, because I just wanted to wave it around and not hurt anyone, but it did have made of metal! And for some reason, my parents just wouldn't buy me one! (I bought one in my twenties, and I still have it.)
Bobert Robertson 3 years ago
One of the gifts I'm giving my 6 year old daughter tomorrow is some fishing lures because she absolutely loves ice fishing...people think it's something for father and son but she's the best fishing partner!
MyOpinionHasBeenServed 3 years ago
My daughter goes fishing with her grandpa. I've gone fishing with my dad and brother. One of my brothers takes his daughters fishing. Not sure why anyone would think it's just a masculine activity.
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Karen Grace 3 years ago
That's a girl after my own heart. I was a major tomboy, still am for that matter. These stupid gender stereotypes are majorly outdated and need to go! Let kids be who they want to be!
Verena Abt 3 years ago
My seven year old son has plenty of household stuff. I hope he'll turn out to be a helpful husband.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I'm a preschool teacher and often the boys who choose the dolls are the more caring ones. We don't aim any dramatic play at one particular gender as it is more about developing social skills.
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Ozymandias73 3 years ago
My grandson wanted a kitchen set for Christmas. Guess what he's getting for Christmas. We've gone from the "days of old" where Barbie = girl and G.I. Joe = boy or pink/blue etc. Let kids do what they do best, be imaginative and PLAY
Wondering Alice 3 years ago
Years ago all my nephew wanted was kitchen stuff. He did not like pink or things we think of as girly. I could not find any kitchen stuff not painted pink and covered in Barbi or hello kitty pictures. In the end, I got him adult kitchen equipment from a camping shop. Most men in his family at the time were cooks, why everything was girly was just odd. His brother loved pink - and still does, he is straight, but why not ware pink if you want? Toys and clothes should have choices though
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Ozacoter 3 years ago
Nothing is inherently girly so they are just being themselves
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Lainie 3 years ago
If this exact situation and conversation actually had happened, I would be very surprised.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I have overheard conversations almost word for word like this from parents. It is particularly grating when said by parents at a kindergarten event. We try to break these toxic patterns all year and parents can undo them in one go.
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Sydney Sheely 3 years ago
I'm actually in Boy Scouts and the reason I didn't chose Girl Scouts was because I didn't want to sing by a campfire I wanted to be out fishing
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
In Australia there is no boy and girls scout, they are all the one group. I think it is much better to encourage both genders to give any outdoor activity a go, and do so together. We do still have Girl Guides though, which I would never have been interested in, especially when there was a local one named 'Gumnut fairy rainbow guides'.
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Michael Fuhry 3 years ago
Way to stick to your blasters, kid! 🤣 Whaddya kids say dese days? I'm dead.
Ms LaDonna 3 years ago
RIGHT? like what person wants to learn how the shackles of their oppression work when you can save the galaxy?!?!?!
Sven Devestele 3 years ago
If this kid actually exists, she's up by a million points in my book
redties_and_blackparades 3 years ago
Let the girl be herself. Stop stereotyping. At least she knows who she is and im really happy that she’s being herself ♥️
Frances Sones 3 years ago
My nephews had a toy kitchen when they were small. My SIL got so many comments suggesting it would affect their gender and sexuality! 😂
Jaekry 3 years ago
My view: you are born as boy or girl, there's no denial possible here. (Physical.) Your path after that, can go many many ways, all good. But denying you are born as a boy/girl will set you up for a world of hurt. Embrace your born gender, AND find the (non)gender that is YOU. Embrace BOTH. Denying history is success for future failure. And yes, that last line applies to all things in life.
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
I have one friend who gets a Lego set from her husband for Christmas every year which I think is amazing. It almost makes me consider dating, but only almost. The best gift my brother and I ever got was probably the mixed box of older Lego pieces from a garage sale. Then we spent the next 10 years fighting over who got to use each particular piece!
Linda Ellis 3 years ago
Most girls like both. Sometimes they want feminine stuff, sometimes, they want to do other stuff. All perfectly ok.
similarly 3 years ago
Many, many, many years ago, when I was probably 3 years old, I wanted a witch mask for halloween. My parents suggested dracula or frankenstein or a ghost, since the witch mask was "for girls", but I wanted the witch mask because it was the scariest. I'm glad my parents got me the witch mask.
jtrisn1 3 years ago
Today I learned my mom believes very religiously in gender roles. She saw me looking at this post and went on a rsnt about how it's the psrents duty to enforce their child's gender until they are old enough to make the decision and when that happens, whatever happens is on them
GoddessOdd 3 years ago
I can't believe this is still happening. It was common when I was a kid, more for boys than for girls, that is, a girl could play baseball a lot easier than a boy could play dolls, although the boys I knew sometimes played with their sisters, but all these years later, I don't know anyone still narrow minded enough to do this. Maybe conservatives, I guess . . . they're the only group I know that still has issues with sexual identity.
Pascale Pierloot 3 years ago
Isn't this more a projecting thing than stereotyping? Mum was just more into the pink stuff and her daughter wasn't. Why mothers are sometimes really bad at buying presents because they buy us things they'ld like to have worn or played with. Or being more practical.the universe isn't going to be saved by kids with lightsabers, and neither is the household furniture. 😉
Vicky Zar 3 years ago
Can't confirm. I would like my girl to be more boyish and like cars and stuff.... she does play with that, as we have lots in the house, but she prefers dolls and other girly stuff. So of course she got a new doll for Christmas!
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If you’ve ever stood in public transport, waited in line at a café, or just talked on your phone while walking down the street, there’s a big chance that you’ve been eavesdropped on.
When you think about listening to conversations of other people, words like “prying” and “nosy” pop right into your head. However, more often than not, these brief interactions are so confusing, they can make anyone stop and listen.
Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Lauren Emberson, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, to find out more about why we are so fascinated by what strangers have to say. She and her colleagues did a study called Overheard cell-phone conversations: when less speech is more distracting.
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The researchers were trying to see whether the thinking abilities of 41 volunteers were most affected by listening to two people talking, a monologue, silence, or a “halfalogue”, a one-sided conversation. The results showed that overhearing a “halfalogue” is distracting and decreases performance “on cognitive tasks designed to reflect the attentional demands of daily activities.”
When it comes to listening to cell-phone conversations, our brains are trying to break down what the person on the other end of the call is talking about, which makes it harder for us to concentrate. “By contrast, overhearing both sides of a cell-phone conversation or a monologue does not result in decreased performance.”
However, it seems that not listening to private conversations is difficult because our attentional systems do it automatically. “Our study showed that even when we instruct people not to listen to the conversations when they were doing attentionally demanding tasks, their attention was specifically drawn away from their task when they were listening to a cell phone conversation or a ‘halfalogue,‘” the professor explained.
It is not exactly clear why that happens. Dr. Emberson told us that there’s some evidence that the unpredictability of the speech could be the problem here. “Remember that in a cell phone conversation, speech starts and stops,” she mentioned.
“We found that attention is drawn away specifically when the speech starts, not during the silences, suggesting that the unpredictable cell phone speech is hard for you to process compared to a dialogue (even when the speaker changes in a dialogue, it’s not as distracting).”
#6
When asked if people eavesdrop consciously, the professor said that it’s definitely true and that she sometimes does it too: “The inspiration of this study, though, was a feeling that I and many others have that you can’t help but eavesdrop on these cell phone conversations.”
She added: “I really didn’t want to listen to them but I felt I couldn’t filter them out. And that’s why we tested whether it is an automatic function of your attentional system to tune your mind into them and sure enough, that’s the case!”
The study revealed that overhearing conversations can make us feel annoyed and irritated. Yet, so many people take these interactions to the internet and see it as a great source of entertainment. Dr. Emberson has offered one explanation for us: “These convos were very irritating at a time before texting when everyone was talking on their cell phones and it was very noisy with those conversations in public spaces like buses.”
#10
“Now most people text (myself included) so they might be more of a curiosity than anything else,” she mentioned. Her personal opinion is that people find such convos bizarre and funny because “they are out of context (you only hear one half) and that engages your curiosity in a way.”
#12
Andy Acceber 3 years ago
Best getaway costume ever. Commit crime in the nude. Put on clothing. Become invisible to cops.
John Locke, a professor of language science and author of Eavesdropping: An Intimate History, mentioned another reason why we may see one-sided convos as irritating. When someone is talking quietly, it grabs people’s attention. However, when they are being loud, many become annoyed.
#15
François Carré 3 years ago
While the presence of a library in a town might appear like something mundane, the absence of it would be somewhat concerning. So yes.
The reason behind it is that loud social behavior violates one basic law of nature: “We don’t like donations. We don’t like it when people present us with information about themselves that we’re not seeking.”
“[People] want to know what you’re truly like inside, not what others want them to think,” Locke said. “We love it when we get something that’s truly genuinely true about others and so we still prefer taking it, or if not taking it, extracting clues on our own.”
#18
Mir Adwari 3 years ago
Yikes... in his shoes I think I'd be tempted. Sorry if no-one agrees with me but how long can you keep harking on back to something before driving the other person round the twist?
We are very interested in how other people act in private. Most of our lives we spend alone with our thoughts, and it’s interesting to see how others behave when they think no one is observing them. “The only way you can know that is by looking at other people who think that they’re alone,” John Locke mentioned.
Still, one thing we’re sure of—listening to strangers’ conversations can be hilarious. And the fact that we hear only a fraction of the conversation that doesn’t make any sense to us makes it even funnier.
#26
Narwhal Blast 3 years ago
Oh no! They need to explain to him what rickrolling is! Like yesterday! It's the most wholesome thing! <3
#32
Mimi La Souris 3 years ago (edited)
houses ? vegetable peeler ? toes ? trees ? too much possiblities, The suspense is killing me !
#33
Mimi La Souris 3 years ago (edited)
🤣I’m gonna tell my friend, I love to see her grumbling for 20 minutes all by herself, wiggling her arms around
#34
Mad Dragon 3 years ago
My first thought when I wake up in the morning is, “I can’t wait to go to bed tonight.”
#37
Hugh Cookson 3 years ago
Overheard in Oxford (UK) once - two academics in full regalia on their way to some function or other, one talking animatedly to the other says " and eighthly, I suggest that Plato was the foremost of the Greek democracy to abandon hagiocracy as a form of governance ... only in Oxford ..... once had two elderly Dons discussing the benefits of a fish based diet along with all of the medical ailments that could be staved off whilst following it, whilst having a fish supper in the restaurant I was running at the time .... happy days.
#42
Mimi La Souris 3 years ago
i feel it too ! a (more or less :p) clean home and the brain is a little lighter
#47
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
We'd love to be over it in the US, too. Instead, we've had two staff suicides, huge quits/requests for a new assignment within hospital/ and i'm a freakin' unpaid person with an MD having to step in, so yeah, *over it* is not an option till humanity gets over being selfish and stupid. Whoops, sorry. Shift starts in two hours and I am feeling unMerry to say the least.
#51
#56
GoddessOdd 3 years ago
You see parents, dragging exhausted kids around like it's the Bataan Death March... or Trail of Tears.
#59
RoseTheMad 3 years ago
Speaking as a mostly casual Kpop fan (except for Dreamcatcher, I do love them xP) my f*****g god some Kpop fans are cringe and scary... o.O
#61
Hugh Cookson 3 years ago
Ghislaine Maxwell is the daughter of the lying, cheating, swindling bastard Robert Maxwell who left thousands of his ex employees and pensioners penniless because he plundered their pension funds in order to keep his businesses afloat ( a fact that a certain bitch called Thatcher knew about, but did nothing) ; after he died by falling off his yacht, a certain 'Murky' Murdoch, took over the reins of his dodgy empire and kept princess Ghislaine under his wing - The dead, cold hand of Murdoch is all over this ... if only he was dead, here's hoping.
#63
Narwhal Blast 3 years ago
I mean, yes, it is just like the flu shot. You raise your sleeve, they put the needle in your arm and press on the syringe to inject the serum. Isn't it how the flu shot is done?
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What do you think ?
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I can't share the good stuff, due to privacy, but once long ago, on a public bus, the guy across the aisle looked right down to his crotch and whispered, "Good boy!" and I got off at the next stop.
Briana Kessler 3 years ago
HOW is it not like the flu shot? BOTH reduce risk of severe illness and death, and both don't prevent illness entirely. Pretty much the same in what is important about them.
Katherine Dobias 3 years ago
I once woke up in the middle of the night to my husband having an argument downstairs by himself saying "no, no. That's not what I said." The next morning I asked him who he was arguing with on the phone last night. He said he was talking to himself. What about, i asked him. He said he likes to practice arguing in case such a situation ever came up in the future. Weekd later, we had an argument and he used that exact same line with me. Looks like I have to eavesdrop on his late night conversations with himself so I can be ahead in the game too.
Tunder 3 years ago
The front page changes by every reload of the page, so reload it and you’ll get another entry :)
Load More Replies... The Redhead 3 years ago
Living in Nashville TN went to IHOP closest to home; certainly not the worst part of the city, but not a good area either. A group of 4 people get out of a car near ours (all had very thick NY accents) as they were walking in I heard one ask "did you lock the doors?" The driver laughed and replied "this is Nashville TN, not NYC." To this day I still don't understand how a person can be from a place where you're practically born with street smarts can be so stupid to not use them everywhere you go.
Glen MacLeod 3 years ago
CA and NY regard everyone between their coasts to be naifs.
Load More Replies... AniaSD 3 years ago
My 3yo: you're young... Me: (thrilled about my looks) My 3yo:...because you're not dead yet
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
Three year olds come out with the best things, sometimes you can really understand their logic... sometimes not :)
Load More Replies...
Maisey Myles 3 years ago
Overheard at the gym- 2 women were gossiping about some woman that had met a new man and he was foreign. She said " I think he's Italian" then she added "or his a Roman, I'm not sure."
Linda Lee 3 years ago
Years ago I was standing in line at a convenience store. Three men were in line ahead of me, two were well dressed, the third was not so well dressed and looked really bored. One well dressed man said to the other, "He's a man of conviction". The not so well dressed man's eyes lit up and said, "I have a conviction!"
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
Overheard at a pub in Sydney: :"I don't know; he's a pathological liar!" "Then why do you still drink with him?"
Glen MacLeod 3 years ago
This is true, I was there standing next to two young guys in a store and they were looking thru DVD. Guy 1: Taken 3?! I didn't know there was a 3rd one! Guy two: Yes, seriously man they gotta stop screwing with the dude's family. Guy1. Yeah, I mean he has special skills! Guy 2: Hells yeah. He was on the A Team. Guy 1: A Team??? Shmay Team. Dude trained Anakin Skywalker!! Guy 2: Dude, he trained BATMAN!
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I can't share the good stuff, due to privacy, but once long ago, on a public bus, the guy across the aisle looked right down to his crotch and whispered, "Good boy!" and I got off at the next stop.
Briana Kessler 3 years ago
HOW is it not like the flu shot? BOTH reduce risk of severe illness and death, and both don't prevent illness entirely. Pretty much the same in what is important about them.
Katherine Dobias 3 years ago
I once woke up in the middle of the night to my husband having an argument downstairs by himself saying "no, no. That's not what I said." The next morning I asked him who he was arguing with on the phone last night. He said he was talking to himself. What about, i asked him. He said he likes to practice arguing in case such a situation ever came up in the future. Weekd later, we had an argument and he used that exact same line with me. Looks like I have to eavesdrop on his late night conversations with himself so I can be ahead in the game too.
Tunder 3 years ago
The front page changes by every reload of the page, so reload it and you’ll get another entry :)
Load More Replies... The Redhead 3 years ago
Living in Nashville TN went to IHOP closest to home; certainly not the worst part of the city, but not a good area either. A group of 4 people get out of a car near ours (all had very thick NY accents) as they were walking in I heard one ask "did you lock the doors?" The driver laughed and replied "this is Nashville TN, not NYC." To this day I still don't understand how a person can be from a place where you're practically born with street smarts can be so stupid to not use them everywhere you go.
Glen MacLeod 3 years ago
CA and NY regard everyone between their coasts to be naifs.
Load More Replies... AniaSD 3 years ago
My 3yo: you're young... Me: (thrilled about my looks) My 3yo:...because you're not dead yet
Huddo's sister 3 years ago
Three year olds come out with the best things, sometimes you can really understand their logic... sometimes not :)
Load More Replies... Maisey Myles 3 years ago
Overheard at the gym- 2 women were gossiping about some woman that had met a new man and he was foreign. She said " I think he's Italian" then she added "or his a Roman, I'm not sure."
Linda Lee 3 years ago
Years ago I was standing in line at a convenience store. Three men were in line ahead of me, two were well dressed, the third was not so well dressed and looked really bored. One well dressed man said to the other, "He's a man of conviction". The not so well dressed man's eyes lit up and said, "I have a conviction!"
Katie Lutesinger 3 years ago
Overheard at a pub in Sydney: :"I don't know; he's a pathological liar!" "Then why do you still drink with him?"
Glen MacLeod 3 years ago
This is true, I was there standing next to two young guys in a store and they were looking thru DVD. Guy 1: Taken 3?! I didn't know there was a 3rd one! Guy two: Yes, seriously man they gotta stop screwing with the dude's family. Guy1. Yeah, I mean he has special skills! Guy 2: Hells yeah. He was on the A Team. Guy 1: A Team??? Shmay Team. Dude trained Anakin Skywalker!! Guy 2: Dude, he trained BATMAN!
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