[ProxCoques]

> People didn't pull out a magazine while in a group and read an article for 5 minutes

Are you being sarcastic? I'm 57 and I recall they absolutely DID do those things in the 70's and 80's. Trains and station platforms? Google some photos!

[Levitz]

While in a group as in, meeting 5 friends and ignoring them to read stuff instead, not as in "somewhere with more people".

[ProxCoques]

I recall it was perfectly common for a group of us to be sat around a table, or on a sofa or somewhere and somebody might drop out of the conversation and take out a magazine or a book, crossword or whatever (in fact Game&Watch and others were a thing back then too) while the rest of us chatted. They might say "I'm still listening", or one of us might bat it out of their hands or something too.

[groestl]

I mean, it's even a trope that a private detective, trying to go unnoticed in a group of people, would pull out a newspaper...