[GrinningFool]

To me, it's worse. It sends the message "I'm pretending really hard to focus on what you're saying, but I'm really doing something else right in front of you!"

I say this as someone who can maintain eye contact and type while giving attention to the person I'm looking atit.

It makes people more uncomfortable than simply looking at the screen while you work and talk.

[oh_sigh]

I'm the same way, and it's not a great skill to have. I've been "called out" a number of times by people who think that I'm not paying attention to them while reading/typing something on my computer, but can in fact usually recite everything they said recently verbatim.