The cell phone has become a necessity of modern life. Grade school kids have their own cell phones these days. (I expect newborns to be using them any minute.) Cell phones keep us in touch with family and friends and they are great to have in an emergency. But public conversations can reveal too much. In fact, some of these details should not be spoken in public.

Have you been at the movies when someone's cell phone goes off? It's annoying, to say the least. Cell phones go off in the middle of important meetings, at grocery stores, and during church services. The "chimes" are as varied as the cell phone owners. Some phones have catchy melodies. The melodies are fun the first few times you hear them, and then they are annoying.

Listening to snippets of conversation is also annoying. I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm getting a keyhole glimpse of someone's life. Because I'm a writer, many sentences sound like soap opera lead-ins or "teasers" for upcoming television specials. I have to stop myself from following the person and asking, "So what happened?"

When I was shopping at a discount store I heard a woman exclaim, "I was terrified! Absolutely terrified! I couldn't believe this was happening." Then she walked away and headed down a different aisle. Questions flooded my mind. Had the woman's life been in danger? Were her family members in danger, too? Did her story have a happy ending?

Teen conversations are interesting because of their speech patterns and topics. "Like, she is always saying this to me," a teen commented. "Like, you know what I mean." Though successive sentences contained the word "like" many times, I could not make sense of the conversation. And I thought I would scream if she said "like" one more time.

Grocery store conversations tend to sound rushed. I felt sorry for the man in front of the pudding display who kept saying, "But honey, they're out of that flavor. What else should I get?" The man checked his grocery list worriedly. Clearly, the grocery store was alien territory for him, and he could hardly wait to leave.

I think cell phone conversations have gotten out of hand. We don't need to hear about a stranger's love life, family arguments, or work problems. It's easy to forget that others can hear us when we are on a cell phone. I have heard people talk - loudly I might add - about their bank balances and stock investments.

It's time to apply common sense to the cell phone craze. If you need to talk to someone, go to another room, your car, or another quiet place. Keep in mind that your conversation, just like a radio program, is broadcast over public air waves. Many people are listening. So think about what you say and what your words say about you.

Copyright 2006 by Harriet Hodgson

Harriet Hodgson

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years. She is a member of the Association of Healh Care Journalists and the Association for Death Education and Counseling. A prolific writer, she is the author of 25 published books and hundreds of print and electronic articles.

Hodgson has written about parenting, recycling, sexual harassment, aging, Alzheimer's disease, caregiving, communication, nutrition, physical activity, weight management, anticipatory grief, and many other topics.

She started out as a teacher and earned a B.S. with honors from Wheelock College in Boston, MA. She went on to earn an M.A. in Art Education from the University of Minnesota and did additional graduate work. After spending a dozen years in the classroom Hodgson changed careers and turned to writing.

All of her writing comes from life experience. Hodgson has talked about her experienes on some 150 radio talk shows, including CBS Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, WCCO Radio and "Coping With Caregiving," an Internet-only radio program broadcast worldwide. In addition, she has appeared on dozens of television programs/stations including CNN.

Hodgson is a Past President of the Wing of the Aerospace Medical Association. A past president of the Minnesota Medical Association Alliance (MMAA), she represented MMAA members on the Minnesota Medical Association Health Care Reform Task Force. She is an active community volunteer and all of her volunteer efforts focus on health.

Hodgson is cited in "Something About the Author," "Who's Who of American Women," "Who's Who in America," "Who's Who in the World," "The Dictionary of International Biography," and "Contemporary Authors," published by Gale Research.

Hodgson lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her husband, C. John Hodgson. She enjoys learning, travel, antiques, singing, and spending time with her twin grandchildren.