Several years ago we witnessed the demise of the telephone booth. Made obsolete by cell phones, the booths were repurposed or demolished or left to decay.
Not so fast. It turns out that, human nature being what it is, the need remained for semi-private communications pods.
The scene: a mall food court men’s room. I enter to find all three stalls occupied. So I wait patiently.
And wait. Less patiently.
And wait. More panicky.
Then, during a brief moment of silence, I hear the following noises coming from behind the stall doors.
A discussion by a housing contractor about a job site.
Muffled speech and the occasional expletive surrounding the occasional “ding.”
“Tap tap tap tap”
And at that instant I realize that the bathroom stall is the new phone booth.
Those weren’t teenagers in there. It was a weekday with school in session. ‘Twas grown-ups who finally exited the stalls. Adults with jobs and families and crushing debt and secrets they’d never tell their wives.
It was bad enough when stalls were hogged by employees taking a surreptitious work break. Now customers were conducting business, web surfing, and reading and responding to email and texts way past the time required to do what brought them there. My God, they may even have been reading blogs!
I assume the situation is the same if not worse in the ladies room. However I decided that research to confirm this theory was unwise. Any comments from female readers with your observations of this phenomenon would be enlightening to us all.
I doubt restaurants, malls, and other public facilities made smartphone use a part of the algorithm they use to decide how many stalls to install. The situation will only get worse. Perhaps Miss Manners will weigh in on how one should act when confronted by closed doors.
Until then, just think of me if you get the urge to overstay your welcome. I need to check my e-mail too, you know.
©2015
Jeffsicle 
Guilty as charged.
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