Talking to phone

The other day when I was having my meal in some restaurant/food court, I see that many people kept using their phones and have zero interactions with their friends or family members. As I am sensitive person, I feel a bit sad about this. I dont know why, but I think that many people have come to a point of hiding themselves behind the phone.

Whenever there is an awkward situation where no one starts to initiate a conversation, everyone will just act busy and get their phones out and keep scrolling Facebook, instagram like as if there is something very important to deal with.  This is what I experienced myself and yeah I admit that I sometimes will do the above. But I am trying my best to fight the temptation of using the phone.

I personally feel that many people had come to a point that they feel that "talking" to their phone is way better than talking to people in real life. They won't get hurt that easily. They can have ample time to think of what to reply after receiving message.
These benefits of online/typing communication seem to be more than verbal communication.
But anyway I still think that verbal communication is a lot more fun.
It's different telling a joke in text and in real life. When you see your friends smile because of a funny joke in real life, it is a far greater feeling than seeing an emoticon that imitates a person's smiling face in messages.

Would you prefer these ";) / XD/ :D" or a genuine laugh or smile from a real person?

Many people have treated their phone, ipads like the most important thing in their life and something they can't live without. And I believe some of you guys might heard before some of your friends saying that they can't live without their phone even if it is just for a day. (We need to train ourselves not to be dependent on anything, but to feel sufficient with just ourselves.)

I am not saying that using phone during an outing is a bad thing. But hopefully we don't use it so much to the extent that the other person just don't feel appreciated when they are spending their time hanging out with us.

Oops, I think I am ranting in this post. Forgive me, hope I made a little sense though. Haha

One last thing:
I am just thinking,
Wouldn't it be great if we can talk to each other face to face instead of typing messages and just looking at the screen and assume the other person emotions by looking at the emoticons?

Wouldn't it be great that everyone enjoys each other's company without using the phone?
I believe that if there is no existence of phone during an outing, it will definitely be a more memorable experience where everyone gets to talk to each other!
I don't know, just a random thought.
Again, I may be right and may be wrong.
Or maybe there is nothing we can do about it? Because "talking" to the phone seems to be a new norm nowadays. :/