Rude indeed—one hundred percent. I’m, by far, the least phone-distracted person in my social group. This is a painful communication barrier that presents itself daily.
I only have one strategy to address a friend whipping out their phone when it’s my turn to speak: I stop talking entirely. Once I have their attention again, I pick up where I left off.
It doesn't happen often in my social circle, but when it does, I do the same. I stop talking. "No problem, I can wait until you've taken care of that urgent issue."
Sounds great in theory, but the only problem is that you have a couple generations of tech bros that are dependent on you being addicted to your phone so they can achieve ascendance to the oligarchy and that's going to be a tough battle.
I only have one strategy to address a friend whipping out their phone when it’s my turn to speak: I stop talking entirely. Once I have their attention again, I pick up where I left off.