I consider staring at your phone while you're eating at a table with other people to be rude behavior, so I don't personally do it.

I mean come on!! This is supposed to be a young Millennial thing not someone who is 78!! I am just about to turn 50 and I do not do that. I must admit if she is ignoring me I will text my boyfriend but only if she is doing it and there is no one else with us. If someone calls me I get up and leave the restaurant. I do not think people want to hear my conversation and I do not want others hearing mine. 78 year old's are not supposed to do that. Sarcasm on the last statement.

I am constantly telling both parents to put their phones away...

It's served us well, but visitors, especially the kid's friends, have a hard time with it.

Oh wait wrong movie 😂

We live in such a connected universe right here and now, why is it so surprising people want to also "unplug" from other people sometimes?

a duck pond, vacant field, home basement, etc.

This is about avoiding waiters, busboys, cashiers, etc.

Yes the internet has allowed us to communicate quicker and have greater access to information but I'm not sure I would say we are more connected.

up and goes the bathroom, the people left would talk to the bartender or other patrons. Now, they dive to check their phone and no one talks.

No, really! People accompanied one another to restaurants to enjoy items from the bill of fare, converse with one another, sample a libation or two, and relieve everyone in the dinner party from the chore of preparing the meal and cleaning up afterwards. Witty or insightful companions were actively sought out, and a good dining companion could sometimes look forward to being treated to a meal several times in a week.

Nowadays, people seem to treat a restaurant meal with all the conviviality of a waiting room at the dentist. The tacit compact seems to be, "Yes, I'm here at this meal with you, but there might be something really interesting happening in China or with the Kardashians, and I would rather read about that than talk to you."

I kinda like seeing those pictures from the 50s of the big wall of little food drawers with a plate of something tasty behind the glass door. Tuna sandwich from one, banana cream pie from another, looks like fun! I can interact with people everywhere. I don;t require it of my food joint. All the time.

I loved the sushi restaurant we used to have with the continuous train of dishes trundling by. Just grab what ya want.

Oh and I will also happily crush candy or answer emails on my phone while I'm eating. I can actually talk to the people with me AND play on my phone. Sometimes, we are playing the same game.

And furthermore, I don't care if people around me are talking on their phones. I hear their conversations with the people at their table- what's the difference if half the conversation is somewhere else?

.....awful.