Because a lot of people default to vapid conversations when they think other people could possibly be listening in on them . A go to topic for a lot of people , especially young women , is how their interactions with men they ' re interested in are going . Most people in public spaces aren ' t going to be talking about their existential breakdown last night , the inner workings of their sociopolitical philosophies , or the complex codemedicinewhatever they ' re working on . Depends on setting and level of privacy . Also if you hang out in nightclubs or Starbucks or something , the women next to you chatting might talk about guys . If you ' re in a high school cafeteria , the girls sitting next to you might talk about boys . If you ' re at a Ted Talk or an experimental orchestra night or a scifi book club or in someone ' s living room playing chess or whatever they ' re probably going to be having some very different conversations . Perhaps you ' re only overhearing conversations spoken by women you choose to surround yourself with in locations you choose to be in . If you want to witness better conversation , you may have to change your surroundings . Not saying I ' ve never met incredibly vapid women who only talk about men . But I ' ve also met plenty of vapid men who only talk about women .