We pretend we don’t do it, but if truth be told, we all talk to ourselves. After all, there’s nothing wrong in having a one-sided conversation with your inner thoughts for a couple of seconds – the sound of your voice helps you reason things out, focus and make up your mind. And it feels good to be right for once.

However, to actually argue with yourself and have a 10-minute discussion with the ghosts inside your head is not a good sign.

Which is what everyone and their brother seem to be doing. Except that they’re not talking to themselves – they’re just wearing a Bluetooth earpiece. Which, admittedly, is not a good sign either.

There are only three instances where you’re allowed to wear an earpiece: when you’re driving, if you work in a call centre, or if you’re a bouncer and your biceps are so thick and stiff that you cannot bend them to get your mobile phone. And anyway, fumbling and fishing for your mobile phone from your jacket’s inside pocket will raise suspicions from a simmer to a bubble, toil and trouble, so best to avoid it.

Otherwise, wearing an earpiece doesn’t look good (and that’s a euphemism if ever there was one). It’s almost as bad as wearing your mobile attached to your belt as if it were a fashion accessory.

The worst kind are those that come with a little blue blinking light – wearing one of them at night will make you look like a corporate Terminator, or that you have a toy lighthouse lodged in your ear.

It’s not just a question of appearances. Try having a conversation with someone who is wearing an earpiece – it’s like they’re telling you that you’re not that important, and that the moment they get a beep in their ear, they will interrupt the conversation you’re having in favour of matters of more substance.

In which case, we would rather interrupt the conversation ourselves and retire to a corner to talk to ourselves.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.