Yeah, the reason we don't have "no television" rules is because they're not a common isssue, phones are. I bet I'm younger than the person who made that comment (and many of the people in here) and the last table I played at with a "no phones rule" was 4 years ago when I was 18 and in/freshly out of highschool (as were the rest of the players, I think down to 16 or 17).

I agree with them that the core issue isn't owning phones, it's people being disengaged or inconsiderate of those around them, but just like many sicknesses, treating the symptom will make it less obtrusive and easier to slide back into playing.

I think the use case for the no phones rule is where you go "hey pay attention" and the person is the type of person who goes "oh sorry, I was just checking [whatever] and got distracted", and not the type of person that goes "go fuck yourself don't tell me what to do". If it's the second type of person, they probably aren't a good fit to be playing with you. If it's the first, they should all be amenable to a "hey guys I know how easy it is to get distracted, I think we can we all agree to not being on our phones outside of breaks?"