That was pretty shitty. You have no possible way to know what the opposite side of the coin was like, and your speculation adds nothing to the conversation; not least because you completely missed the point. Bravo.
There is no reason for being afraid of new technology! At this point we've survived the advent of the radio, television, personal computers, the internet, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Smartphones. Almost every one of these was met with "that's going to ruin society!" and none of them did. Sure, it changed, in a lot of ways, the way we do things, but that doesn't mean its ruined!
Technology isn't a thing we add to our lives anymore, its an intrinsic part of our society/culture. Most people can't imagine being without a cellphone and we're probably getting close to the point where having a smartphone feels just as essential.
What I wanted to get at is that both sides probably see each other as unreasonable. He wants more attention and dislikes that his girlfriend is using her phone while they're together, she obviously feels or thinks that its okay to use her phone while they do things. The problem is he wants her to go against the new societal norm. Like the OP stated, people these days socialize with their smartphones present, its normal, it would be normal for her to use her phone in a social context. (Granted, she may have taken it a little far.. I may have taken it a little far, also.)
