Today’s word of the day is phub. Dictionary.com defines phub as a slang word that means to ignore (a person or one’s surroundings) when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile device: hey, are you phubbing me?

Wiktionary tells us it’s a word that was created by combining the words phone and snub sometime between 2010-2014. But we’ve probably been phubbing for a bit longer, even though there was not a word for it yet. Phub, they explain, was coined by Adrian Mills at the McCann advertising agency as part of a campaign to promote the Macquarie Dictionary by creating a new word.

Have you been phubbed? It’s certainly a thing. We are attached to our phones these days, what with tweets and posts and texts that bombard us on a minute by moment basis. And by game apps; those addictive,mindless diversions that divert our attention from everything around us into a strobing screen…just one more round…a win, at-long-last. I’m must come clean. I have probably been a phubber. I may not have intentionally phubbed anyone, but I’m most certain I have done it. Not that I can recount a clear example. It’s all a blur.

I think it’s a good practice to establish rules of etiquette in this age of pocket media devices by setting up situational “no mobile device zones”. For example meal times, forcing everyone around the table to engage in conversation. Remember conversation? You don’t? When I finish this post I’ll send you a text link to Wikipedia so you can learn about it. 🤪 better yet, here’s the link…CONVERSATION. Sorry…didn’t mean to shout at you. 😊

you know, we should talk
true friends don’t let friends flubber
texting is for bots

~kat