“What do you think you’re doing?” Those are the words I heard as I stared at the customer in confusion. What could I have possibly done to this person? Just as I was about to confront the customer, he pointed to his right ear. He was wearing a Bluetooth headset. It wasn’t me who he was mad at, it was the person on the phone.

Has this ever happened to you? It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as my incident; just a simple case where you thought someone was talking to you, and they were really on their phone. Maybe I’m crazy, but I run into these misunderstandings all the time working at a supermarket.

These incidents seem to be occurring more and more with the introduction of Bluetooth headsets. Sure, occasional conversation confusion arose long before Bluetooth headsets, but the headsets are making the problem worse. They’re getting smaller and smaller, making it harder to distinguish if the person is talking to you, talking on the phone, or downright crazy and talking to themselves.

I just wish there was someway to identify if a person was talking on their phone without having to hunt for a Bluetooth headset. Maybe a universal signal, or some super-bright LEDs radiating the area around the Bluetooth headset. I know, people can have some manners and stop talking on their phone in front of people. Like that will ever happen!