As of late, many students have become extremely uncomfortable with the level of creepiness some online social networks, ahem, Facebook, have stooped to – going from knowing details about people you’ve never actually met in reality, to knowing the last time that person ate a meal, went to the bathroom and slept in someone else’s bed. Three words: too much information!

Staying on the intrusive side, although still less so than Facebook’s now notorious “news feeds,” compulsive people-watchers and eavesdroppers whose sole purpose in life is to listen in on the juicy conversations of others can flock to a new Mecca that has arrived on the Internet. Overheard in New York takes the strenuous work out of eavesdropping the old-fashioned way by publishing the best snippets of conversation overheard in all corners of the city each day on the Internet.

Eavesdropping since 2003, owner of www.overhearinnewyork.com Morgan Friedman is a self-described “easily amused compulsive people watcher.” Friedman decided to share his compulsion with others by accepting dozens of entries each day and whittling them down to about a dozen of the best to publish on his site.

Not only is Overheard in New York an exceedingly entertaining tool for procrastination, but it’s also interactive; readers can rate the submissions with a “thumbs up,” a “thumbs down,” or just plain “wtf?”. Some are fairly common or quirky convos, while others can be cruel, vulgar and flat out disturbing. Take this submission, for example, overheard in Union Square: “Girl #1: ‘I’m funny.’ Girl #2: ‘No you’re not.’ Girl #1: ‘Yes I am. Everyone says I’m hilarious.’ Girl #2: ‘Of course they do. That’s because you aren’t pretty.'” Whoa, Girl #2 is pretty harsh.

Another features an alarmingly naive, intoxicated girl on the train, talking about her roommate with a friend: “Kool-Aid is my most favorite drink in the whole world. When she moved in, it was like great, because it was like, you love Kool-Aid too? Awesome, we’re going to get along great. But then it ended up, she tried to kill me with a steak knife.” The lesson? Don’t pick roommates based on their fruit-drink preferences.

And this one, from a so-called “20-something frat boy,” which is just plain wrong: “Ya know, something tells me my future wife hasn’t even been born yet.” That one definitely deserves a “wtf,” if not a report to the NYPD.

Granted, Overheard in New York is probably one of the most direct forms of privacy invasion out there; these people have no idea their conversations are being shared with others around the world on the Internet. Overheard in New York has the appeal of a guilty pleasure, and that’s what makes it so good. That is, until it happens to you.

Imagine if you were having a personal conversation on the metro and, later that night, everyone around the world discovered that your boyfriend had cheated on you with your best friend’s mother? Of course, no one would have to know it was you, but it’s still humiliating. No need to worry yet – there is no Overheard site for Montreal, although Livejournal has created an unofficial version at http://community.livejournal.com/overheardmtl.

It’s only a matter of time, though, before there will be a site dedicated to uncovering the seedy, comical and unusual conversations of Montrealers. So until then, log on to catch some awesome gossip, straight from the mouths of complete strangers.