Cellphones, social networks make eavesdropping OK?
David Smith has heard — or rather overheard — it all while on planes, including the sexual details of a stranger's hookup at a business meeting.
"It feels like you're eavesdropping, but in another sense, you're forced to share something that falls under the heading of 'too much information,' " says Smith, 54, of Austin, a retired consultant and frequent business traveler.
A century ago, when the first home phones were "party lines" shared by neighbors, "worrying you were being listened in on was a common feature of American culture," says sociologist Claude Fischer of the University of California-Berkeley.
Oh, how times have changed.
