Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. She looked at me, then at my phone and back at me. She was not pleased. Her eyes darted around the restaurant. They surveyed the other husbands, boyfriends and fiancés: Were they too ignoring their dates, checking sports scores, texting their buddies? Is my husband a jerk or is this a social pandemic? "What would happen if your phone didn't exist and you had to talk to me?" "But I am talking to you." "No, you're looking at your p
