You've been phubbed

So, you've read the headline, clicked on the hyperlink - and are probably wondering what "phub" means.

No, it does not involve cruelty to animals and has nothing to do with the ancient art of Kama Sutra.

Recently coined by 23-year-old Australian native, Alex Haigh, phubbing describes the act of cold-shouldering someone in a social situation, by paying attention to your cellphone instead of paying attention to your companion.

Picture this: you are sitting at a dinner table flanked by personally invited guests on the eve of your big promotion - something you have been vying for all your working life. You stand up to make a toast and gaze down at a pool of illuminated cellphone screens - as opposed to the human faces you expected. Not cool.

Not cool, and perhaps even unacceptable (according to widely-accepted and often unspoken criteria for general etiquette) - but all too common nowadays.

This is why Haigh has taken it upon himself to wage an online war against the frustrating phenomenon, by launching a Web site, stopphubbing.com, in the hope the virtual front will help eradicate what he - and many others - deems intolerable behaviour.

"Phubbing is rife throughout the world. Just imagine couples of the future sitting in silence. Relationships based on status updates. The ability to talk or communicate face-to-face completely eradicated. Something must be done - and it must be done now."

I am a self-professed phubber, but will shamefully deny it to my death. I just cannot stand the thought of my parents' hard work going to waste. (For the record, I still say "please" and "thank you".)

Owning a mobile phone - whether you are 14 or 45 - means you would be lying if you said you had never phubbed or been phubbed.

The evidence speaks for itself and the progression of the social disorder is effectively taking us back to an era in which the human race had no unspoken - or otherwise - rules for social engagement.

Manners - etiquette - originated centuries ago from the inherent need to show respect to your fellow human being. Rumour - and a little bit of history 101 - has it that prehistoric people eventually came to use toned-down human behaviour (heretofore referred to as "manners") to make life easier and more pleasant for co-existence.

Let's go back in time and take a rambunctious group of Neanderthals sitting around a fire, spitting, burping and spewing foul language. Back then, this kind of behaviour was perfectly acceptable - but fast-forward a couple of decades (give or take a few), and society would collectively cringe at the mere thought of it.

As it stands, with mobile technology being relatively new, the world has just not had enough time to come up with a blueprint for mobile manners.

Haigh says we are not that far removed from our primitive predecessors, who then had no notion of what we today call manners.

The Web site lays bare the ills of our mobile-focused society in the face of tried and tested civilised societal norms:

* Ninety-seven percent of people claim their food tasted worse while being a victim of phubbing.
* Eighty-seven percent of teenagers would rather communicate via mobile text than face-to-face (and I suspect the adult contingent would reflect the majority closely).
* Ninety-two percent of repeat phubbers go on to become politicians (no surprises there).
* An average restaurant will see 32 cases of phubbing per dinner session.
* Most phubbers use their mobile to update their various statuses on social media, text someone they regard as better than the person they are with, purchase music, Google Chuck Norris, play games, search for a laundry service (yes, that is how interesting you are), or LOL (that is, laugh out loud) at a joke that isn't yours.

Traditionally, the notion of etiquette, or manners, is handed down from generation to generation - in anecdotal forms - but the relatively sudden progression of technology has all but destroyed the model on which our parents originally based this.

Now that the evolution of mobile devices has basically been classified a bane of society and slapped with a derogatory label denoting anti-social behaviour, is society going to sit up and take note - or simply carry on Googling, Facebooking, WhatsApping, SMSing, BBMing and texting while in the company of others?

I guess it remains to be seen, but I am willing to bet my BlackBerry the young Aussie's virtual revolution is not really going to change our phubbing behaviour. Not yet.