[jedberg]

> Before smartphones usually, you'd make up conversation, smalltalk, even if you didn't want to talk or had anything interesting to say.

No you didn't. You read a newspaper or magazine. Even growing up in the 80s I remember sitting around the table, each of us reading a different section of the LA times, and then swapping 1/2 way through the meal.

[orev]

That kind of thing was not nearly as widespread as phone usage today; not by a very long shot. Maybe you did that, but I would say that was probably very rare. The use of phones is nearly ubiquitous, because they have addictive properties that paper simply doesn’t.