When I was a child, the TV was running at our home a lot. When I left home, I didn't buy a TV on purpose. Visiting my family again was a weird experience: after a few words, someone suggested to go watch a TV. Nothing specific, just the default way of spending time. I was like "ugh, if you don't mind, I would prefer talking to you", but they were like "no problem, we can watch and talk". Except, it didn't work that way. Watching and talking means, you ask a question, the other person opens their mouth... but keeps watching the screen... and then maybe after a minute says something, very slowly, not even a coherent sentence.

If you are not used to that, it's like watching people you know turn into zombies. But of course, if you do it every day, you are just as zombified as others, so it feels okay to you. (Just like drunk people don't mind being in company of other drunk people, or stoned people don't mind being in company of other stoned people.) You spend a few hours in each other's company, saying less than ten sentences during all the time, and somehow it gives you the feeling of spending quality time together, when in fact everyone was only paying attention to the screen.

You could get an equivalent of that by having the whole family sit on a large sofa, everyone watching their own smartphone, sitting together in silence for hours. At the end, everyone would feel like they had a meaningful experience together. It only feels weird when the rest of the people are glued to their screens and you are not.