Every week my significant other and I and some of our friends go to bar trivia. Last week our friend brought a lady friend he had been dating for a few weeks and she brought her roommate. These two were quite a bit younger than us (I'm in my 30s), they were 21 or 22 at the oldest. The whole time they were glued to their phones, except when we were answering questions because you can't have your phones out while answering questions. They got all huffy when they had to put them away, and didn't even want to help with the questions because of it. Neither of them wanted to interact with the people around them at all. It was really the most rude thing I ever saw in my life. My friend and her actually broke up over it.
When people pull their phones out when talking to my or out with me, it really really stresses me out. I don't know why I find it stressful, but I do.
You likely find it stressful since they are completely and totally ignoring you and not even trying to be polite or nice about it. Its one thing to be part of a conversation and not really contribute to it (but are at least paying attention and trying to absorb the information) and another to be "part" of a conversation and completely oblivious to said conversation.
This has happened to me a lot in recent years and I find it stressful as well. Probably the biggest problem I have with it is I don't understand the purpose of going out somewhere with people to not participate at all. Why not just save everyone time/trouble and not go in the first place?
I find stress to be a strange response though. Annoyance would be a more "expected" response. Stress is something I wouldn't expect because I associate stress with more of a "fight or flight" situation.
It's something I find interesting.
I also don't understand the point of going out and not participating, or fully participating. If I have someone in front of me, I find I owe them my full attention, anything else is rude. I also am finding it highly strange that it seems difficult for anyone just to sit quietly by themselves without anything to do for 10 minutes, I think its a product of our "always plugged in" lifestyle.
One can wonder if they act anti-social due to being glued to their phones, or whether they are like that from themselves and it just showed more obvious because of the phones.
When people pull their phones out when talking to my or out with me, it really really stresses me out. I don't know why I find it stressful, but I do.