They Left Me No Choice But To Eavesdrop

This past week I went to Pittsburgh for work-related training. It took two separate flights to get from here to there and three to get back. During the first flight of the return trip, I was treated to the continuation of an extended conversation between two young women that had started in the terminal.

Now, these two were five rows behind me. In an airliner, with its relatively high ambient noise and sound-absorbing furnishings, you should not be able to hear every single word in a conversation held five rows behind you. I know that I didn't care to hear their conversation, nor did the people around me. Yet, these two young women thought their conversation was so important, and were so oblivious to those around them, that they blissfully continued talking at such a high volume that people several rows away could hear every detail. The fact that it was a 6:00 AM flight and that most of us had been awake for at least two hours beforehand made it even more annoying.

I have to wonder; have people always been this self-centered and self-important, or is this behavior found mostly in younger generations? I could understand it if these were children and they didn't realize that an otherwise silent airplane at six in the morning is not the place to hold a loud conversation, but these two appeared to be in their twenties. Since I'm not of the disposition to shush a stranger, I didn't say anything and simply seethed over it. No one else said anything either, so I have to wonder if we were all suffering in silence or if I was the only one bothered by it. That may be the worst part of the whole incident; for all I know, no one else took notice of it and I'm just crazy.