I never knew there was a word for it. Hmm. 'Phubbing' Phubbing is a portmanteau of the words “phone” and “snubbing.” It means ignoring or snubbing the person (or people) you are with by focusing on your phone instead of them. Common examples include: Looking down at your phone and reading messages or scrolling while someone is talking to you Texting or checking social media during a meal or conversation Continuously glancing at your screen in the middle of face-to-face interaction The term was coined around 2012 by an Australian campaign (involving the Macquarie Dictionary) that wanted a specific word for this increasingly common behavior. In practice, phubbing is one of the clearest modern signals of divided attention. Research has linked frequent phubbing to lower conversation quality, reduced feelings of connection, and lower relationship satisfaction for the person being ignored. It is exactly the mid-conversation phone-checking behavior you described earlier.