The people who keep their phone face down on every table they sit at aren't hiding something. They learned that being reachable in front of certain people meant being interrupted out of whatever fragile peace they'd just managed to assemble - Silicon Canals

"The phone isn't the problem. The interruption is. A face-down phone is a piece of physical infrastructure. It's a wall someone built on the table because they finally figured out that the screen lighting up costs them something every single time, and most of the time the cost outweighs whatever notification arrived."

"Smartphone use can trigger our stress response system - adrenaline, cortisol, the body bracing for a threat. Every notification is a small dose of that. The phone face-down is a person opting out of the dose."

Placing a phone face-down is a practical strategy to minimize distractions from notifications. This behavior is often misinterpreted as rudeness or secrecy, but it serves to protect one's mental calm. Each notification can trigger a stress response, disrupting focus and peace. By opting to keep the phone face-down, individuals are actively choosing to avoid the anxiety associated with potential interruptions, allowing for more meaningful interactions without the constant pull of digital distractions.

Read at Silicon Canals