Radio, television and telephones (real ones) came with an accepted etiquette.
If a visitor came to your home, you turned off the TV and you conversed with them. Radio the same or turned down for back ground noise.
If the phone rang, it was out of the main social area, in the hall or the kitchen, you spoke privately on the phone, out of the room for reasons of mutual privacy and respect.
There were other unwritten rules, such as if someone wanted to speak to you, you did not ignore what they were saying and carry on watching Tom & Jerry while they spoke, you paid attention to them favouring the other person over your own personal gratification.
Other than in an emergency you did not phone people after 9 o'clock at night. You did not phone your next door neighbour, you went and knocked on the door and spoke to them.
If someone used the phone to sexually harass another person it was a crime.

p/tSmart phones have no etiquette as to how, when or where you use them and for what purpose. They have almost become a form of ersatz personal telepathy, sharing your life with a chosen group of others, who you connect to at the expense of actual community. You ignore people who are actually there with you, other than to ask them to pay for this opt out, because real people are "Boomers" or old farts who "don't get it." Because Oh God Forbid that a child actually be asked pay their own phone bill or internet bill, by getting a P/t job, because that would be deprivation and child abuse.
God Forbid a child be expected to communicate with the family that is feeding them while they sit at the same table and eat. No. rather they sit with a fork in one hand, phone in the other and play a game of candy crush with a "friend" on another continent in a corrupt form of English consisting of a form of short hand gibberish. Other, that is, than to complain to the person cooking for you, that the pizza you spent an hour making is shit, because it did not come from Dominoes and therefore is not 50% monosodium glutamate and does not taste and reek of plastic and so is not "real".

I get annoyed when my granddaughters text me from the next room instead of just calling my name .

I have a cell phone and it is with me if I am out of the house. I will answer calls from only two sources while I am at work. My wife and the hospital. everything else goes to voice mail and I check it at break if I think to do so. I use it all the time to find information on how to figure out math problems at work. No games, no porn, nothing that is not important or educational. I am getting old and time is to short to waste on garbage. I do text, as I figure this is the same as calling, but the person to be contacted does not have to immediately answer. They might be busy living. Text also puts the information in writing, instructions do not get confused.

So what is it that's turning Billy into a flaming asshole, besides his over blown sense of entitlement and ego?

Our great-grandparents watched a giant radio every evening,

Stared at a radio.

Some of the favorite radio performers were tap dancers and ventriloquists.

Think about that just a minute.

He's totally right about all of it, and I have been criticized, mainly by well-meaning female friends here on Agnostic, that I am too resistant to new tech, esp. smartphones, and also rejected by women on Match because I refused to have a smartphone, and learn to text or be willing to give them my tracphone number right off the bat after we begin messaging each other, because they would rather text me than keep messaging me on Match or trade phone numbers and do verbal calls. Maybe the latter group rejects me because what matters to them is their personal convenience of texting and doing one way communication on their part, and feeling a need to be able to send me messages at their convenience without having to go thru Match, regardless of what I would prefer. It's all about them.

I don't want to join the texting world, as it is too prone to misunderstanding and lacks context. I also want to have verbal phone talk and face to face conversations be a priority with anyone I date, and if that is not ok with them, then they are incompatible with me anyway, as their values regarding relationships are too different from mine. They don't value clear, honest communication as much as me and they clearly don't value face time or emotional connection, because texting is so much worse than the other two forms of communication for that. Healthy relationships involve people commiting time to building them and making the other person one of their main priorities, if not their first priority. And if their first priority is being connected 24/7 to the digital world and social media, rather than being present in person and attentive to those they are meeting, because they are easily bored or afraid they are or might be missing out on something more fun, interesting, or attentive, then maybe they should just stay home all the time and play with their phone from there, instead of pretending to be interested in real offline friendships with others.

I have a tracphone for when I leave home and need to make an emergency call or keep up by phone with friends when I am traveling. Otherwise, I make and receive my calls to and from friends at home on my landline and make an effort to keep in touch with all of them regularly. I am rarely active on social media, and use it mainly to message a few friends and keep up on the local karaoke show calender and news about that. So I have no need for a smart phone and I enjoy my peace and quiet at home or away from home when I want to be left to my thoughts or fully attentive and present to other people or an event I am attending away from home. Why would someone want to arrange their life to be constantly interrupted? I just don't get it, unless they are either very insecure, or have an exaggerated need to feel very busy and important, probably much more than they really are on either count.

Almost nobody has my tracphone number because they really don't need it and I only give it to someone if a need for them having it arises, and it is usually only a very temporary need. And because of that, I almost never check my tracphone for messages, because I only check it when I am expecting a message or just called someone on it.

It's interesting, to me at least, that so far all the members who reacted in agreement with me are men.

My friends know I am antiphone, so much so that one bought me one for my birthday just to contact me (my first phone) I admit they have their uses in as much as emergency calls when you are in an accident or witness one.
I currently have one so that when I could travel I was able to call a taxi (given that most public phones are now removed)
I have one friend and when we are out she is constantly on her phone and not talking to us. So if she asked me a question (there were a group of us) I ignored it and pretended she was not there. When she confronted me (because how dare I ignore her) I told her that while she had her idiot screen open in front of her and not talking to us I felt no reason to talk to her. She looked stunned. She has gotten better when I am around and puts it in her bag or face down on the table. People had mentioned to her before about putting her phone away and her reply was I am still listening.

Everyone knew that at a movie I hate mobiles going off. A great friend went to a movie with me and just at we sat down said that he needed to go to the loo. (not a problem he had a medical issue that was common knowledge) but after he left I saw his phone on the seat, I started to chuckle and as he bolted back in and leapt up the stairs I asked him when he remembered he had left it near me. He said he was just glad it had not gone off. (I might have answered it and really confused the person on the other end) the movie had not started to it really wasn't a problem.

I saw the program and I agree fully. You never see me walking around looking down at my phone smiling with both thumbs working. Sure, I text but not like that. My phone is only for talk and text and I do not get online with it at all. It's a tool and not a game. My phone is usually in my pants pocket if I am out in public. If I was in a restaurant with a group and they were all playing on their phones I might swear when I asked then to put the phones away. I would also announce that the phones get put away or I leave. Yes, I'm that direct and I talk a lot.

Everything is a double edged sword……good and bad.