Using you mobile phone

at the family meal table is something the Senior Cat could not quite believe.
There was a piece in yesterday's paper about this and about the problems it causes. When parents are looking at a screen rather than at their children then there will be problems. Children will not be as well behaved. Parents are more likely to be annoyed with their children.
      "Can't you wait?" and "Don't interrupt me!" and "For goodness' sake be quiet!" are things I have heard parents say to children while looking at the screen on their phones. If those same things are being said at the meal table is it any wonder if a child doesn't behave well?
I went out with a friend on Thursday. It is the first time we have seen one another in over four years. I forgot to take my phone with me. (It sits, unloved, in the bottom of the backpack I take on the trike.)  She pulled out hers just once. The purpose? To show me how much her grandchildren had grown since I last heard about them. 
And no, she didn't sit there and go through the photographs herself and tell me in great detail. She found the relevant spot, passed the phone over and let me scroll through about eight. That was it. As she said,
       "I wanted to see you and talk to you."
I agreed. I wanted to see her and talk to her. We talked - a lot. Yes, we caught up on family but we also talked about knitting and her sewing and the behaviour of other people on their mobile phones. 
If I am invited out then I consider I have been invited out because the person wants my company, not the company of their mobile phone.
Yesterday someone did interrupt their conversation with me to take a phone call. It was a call they were expecting from a doctor. When she first spoke to me she said,
     "Cat, I need to ask you something but I am waiting on a call from the doctor about...."
That was fine. She excused herself. She took the call and kept it brief.  She apologised again...not really necessary.  I didn't mind in the least. It was a necessary interruption. Doctors are busy people.
     "If it had been a friend I would have rung her back," this person told me.
The Senior Cat has been having an ongoing discussion with the assistant priest at his church. He gave her a book to read called, "Why people don't go to church." It came back with some notes inside it. One of those those read, "How can we be good Christians if we don't have face-to-face contact with people?" 
I would ask, "How can we be good people if we don't  have face-to-face contact with people?" 
How can people be good parents, friends and colleagues if they remove themselves from others?