[gewoonkris]

This morning my daughter walked into the living room and started telling me about something that happened to her. She stopped talking mid-sentence when her eye fell on the television that I had forgotten to turn off.

Only after calling her name three times and considerably raising my voice I got her attention again.

The show that was on was... the cooking channel! So the bar for television completely absorbing a child's attention seems quite low :-)

[ryandrake]

I've seen grown adults behave this way with their phones. Totally zonked out and unaware of anything happening in the real world. Don't think it's an age thing.

[y-curious]

I have a weird quirk that when talking to someone, if they start using their phone, I stop talking until they're done. It has made me painfully aware how true your comment is. Many times people don't even notice that I stopped talking (and why event try to talk to someone that isn't listening?)

[ryandrake]

I don't know how society managed to normalize playing with your phone during a face to face conversation. Like, imagine going back to 1990 and getting into a conversation with your friend over coffee, and in the middle of him talking, you whip out a newspaper and start reading it. He would instantly say "WTF are you doing, man?" But today, the same thing happens with the phone, and it's just kind of...accepted?

[latexr]

> Many times people don't even notice that I stopped talking

At that point, might as well consider the next step of getting up and leaving.

[tanseydavid]

I don't think that is weird at all. Uncommon, maybe.

[littlekey]

The fun really starts when they get defensive about it and start accusing you of being passive aggressive :)

[financypants]

when I was growing up my father tried to get the attention of my sister watching saturday morning cartoons. After the third attempt, he just threw away the TV, and so I grew up most of my childhood with no TV