Maybe when you throw a party, don't invite people who are going to spend the whole time on their cell phones?
Holy shit. Sounds rough. 'Leered at'? That's only a step away from having people mutter about you under their breath. You're white and rich-stop risking your life so recklessly.
See, I'm a bit two sided on this topic. On one hand I use my phone alot. I text plenty and am on a constant search for more information. But when I'm out, its more a function of meeting up with people and as a social safety blanket at parties. Fuck you, don't say I should be more social. Some parties/bar scenes just suck, and its a way to pass time or occupy yourself instead of awkwardly standing there while your gf runs to the bathroom or as opposed to just inserting yourself into a nearby conversation. But at the same time, its incredibly deflating and frustrating to be hitting on a girl or trying to chat only to have them text constantly to some mysterious dude they would rather be fellating. Girls I find are much more flagrant phones abusers in a bar setting.
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned emergencies yet. Do I use my phone as a kind of safety blanket to avoid making small talk? Absolutely. That doesn't mean that there aren't times when terrible things do happen and somebody needs to get in touch with me. I know a lot of people, and some of them are spread out, and it allows me to relax a little bit if I know that they have the chance to get in touch with me. If I don't have my phone, I'll constantly thinking in the back of my mind that something could have happened. I'm a fairly staunch proponent of just living your life rather than documenting it at the same time. I don't check into foursquare or constantly stop for pictures, but that doesn't mean I don't like having the sort of long-distance assurance that's the entire point of a cell phone.
Any bar debate that you can solve with Google-fu, fucking should be. A debate on facts that you can verify through snopes or wikipedia isn't worth the fucking debate. Argue about opinions, where your arguments are actually a valid factor and Google doesn't help. Just get the fucking facts right as quickly as possible, and if using google gets that done? Fucking good. Fuck that bullshit though. I'd made a point of fucking with anyone who talks on a phone in a social group unless it's obviously a work call and they're in the process of walking outside. I can't think of any of my friends who'd even try that crap. We all know that the repercussions would be brutal. Any of my friends would fuck with you for that kind of nonsense for the rest of time. I totally get someone keeping up a text exchange in a social setting. If the person you're intending/planning/hoping/wanting to fuck isn't sitting at the table while you're drinking - a text exchange to try and make that shit happen while maintaining social presence with your friends is easy to do politely, and any sane person should understand. A constant string of texts to someone else, while you're sitting next to the person you're trying to fuck is probably inexcusable though.
It's hard for me to set my phone down and not touch it for an hour because I need it for work. I'm usually on call so putting my phone in a "phone basket" would be disastrous. I carry an older Blackberry Bold as a spare in my truck incase I break my Torch so I can be up and running again quick. Over the course of a day I probably get 25 calls, 30 emails and 50-100 work related BBM's everything from getting quotes from suppliers to my boss calling me asking me a break down of what I did on March 12th 2012 because the customer is bitching about the bill. I also take anywhere from 20-100 pictures a day to send to my boss about work progress, or when I take things apart, or to show ESA inspectors work completed during rough-in that is under concrete. I communicate to the rest of the guys and my boss through BBM because it's alot quicker then calling them to get a one sentence answer. For personal buisness I'm not on my phone very much. I BBM with my girlfriend alot, but usually I have a quick conversation with a friend and then my phone is in my pocket. I usually don't have time to have a detailed chat with my friends throughout my day, and when I'm out I don't want to waste my time on my phone to bullshit with one of my friends.
I'm blown away that more of you don't have this opinion since it's incredibly logical. I see a lot of yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off your lawn in this thread. A little background before I continue: I'm 23, very social, and very reliant on my phone for both my social life and work. I didn't have a cell phone until my sophomore year of high school, which may sound early but I was one of the last people that I knew to get one and I didn't go to a rich high school. It sounds like a lot of your nights consist of going to one specific bar or party with only the specific people that you start the night with. There are a lot of people, such as myself, whose nights generally consist of several bars and/or parties with various people. It's significantly easier to text in a noisy bar (where us young whipper snappers generally are on a Friday/Saturday night) than it is to call, especially when you're coordinating with multiple people. This is especially true if you're trying to meet-up with a girl you're trying to fuck. Coordinating with others to come join you via texting while out is not intended to be rude - it's merely coordinating with others to come join you. The being said, carrying on a conversation with others while you're hanging out with others doing anything other than doing something like watching TV. Especially while at a bar; what conversation could you add alcohol to to improve it? As another poster said, girls seem to be much worse about this. But complaining about a girl paying attention to her phone over you while you're trying to hit on her at a bar? If she's doing that, you should probably walk away because either she's a bitch or you're not clicking so it ain't gonna happen.
This reminds me of ths guy Dan I know who would call all the guys to go out and "meet some strange". We'd pre-game for 45, get to the bar, and like 45 minutes later, start texting the 2-3 girls he already were hooking up with. His friend was the same way, she's talk about "I can't wait to get out, I need to meet new people!" 30 minutes or a glass a wine or two in, she's on Facebook like white on rice. It's shit like the above two examples that make me hate people.
Yeah, this is just an inertia thing, or the pussy of least resistance. Change takes energy. When you're home alone and sober and horny, you have energy, you want some strange love. You put energy into getting ready and getting the crew and going out. And then you start drinking and you run out of energy. And you realize that the pussy of least resistance, is the one you fucked on Wednesday. If there was a new and shiny alternative in front of you that required no more effort to get, you'd almost certainly go with that instead. But if you're looking at your four ugly friends and last week's hookup is sounding promising? Fuck it. Everyone does this shit to some degree. Some people just call it holding onto a dead relationship.
Usually I just give my friends a smack in the forehead if they bury their face in their smartphone for too long a time when out with us, but my friend El Nino is the merciless referee of quality control. If you start an electronic conversation when with friends that results in ignoring our group, he snatches the phone and confiscates the battery for the night. His message was simple and I cherished it: "Kill me before the night is over, and you can have your precious phone battery back. If not, then you are out with your friends." ...to answer your question, no, I have never met anybody with the hubris to try and take it back. Not from him, at least.
And I see a lot of bullshit. I can't count the number of times I've seen people on this board posting in the WDT and the R&R thread, among other threads, while they are obviously out in an unrelated social situation. Each time it comes up, I wonder what the fuck they are doing posting on TiB instead of actually being where they are and interacting with whomever they are with.
Wait, what? I thought everyone was stuck at home, in a dark room, drinking non-specific hard liquor and furiously masturbating to tentacle-porn while posting in the drunk thread? As for the focus - I will agree that enough times for me to start stereotyping, women (or rather young women) are the worst offenders. Always with the smart phones. If I check my facebook on a sunday, I will have been "tagged" at all sorts of places by my female friends / acquaintances during the course of the nights.
Fuck that basket business. Honestly if I'm around people who would rather use their phone then talk to me, that's my mistake for placing myself around these cunts. So if these people put their phones down will they suddenly become interesting and engage in toughtful conversations? No, they'll be the same boring assholes but now I'll be the one enduring their bullshit. If you see someone who won't get off their phone at a party or the bar fuck 'em, you probably don't want to be talking to them anyway. The only time you should get on peoples case about being on their phone is if they are disturbing others i.e. talking loudly on a bus, movie theatre or if they are like my douchebag friend who texts and drives with his knees. It's ok though cause he always makes sure to check all his mirrors.