I had a friend (not a close one, but good enough to arrange one-on-one meetings in NYC) repeatedly pull out his phone in the middle of conversations. Everything just stopped for a minute 4-5 times/hr. I then defriended him in real life.

But then you also have the people who just scroll through Instagram or something similarly non-linguistic while you're in a conversation. They say they're listening but they "just do this naturally" or "I can do two things at once".

Whether their phone use is blocking or non-blocking of our conversation, it's simply a gesture of disrespect if done more than once or twice. If you don't like my company enough to give full attention, or your other friend is in an emergency, just excuse yourself and leave.

I think I'm going to start excusing myself when I find my friends are doing it.