By opening your yap, you staked out the territory as The Guy Who Fights With Drunk Old Women. Poor choice. Best case is you come out looking like an idiot. Worst case is she gives you a beat down and shoves that Blackberry up your ass for you.
Here’s a question: if a muscular 20-something guy had said exactly the same thing in exactly the same place, would you have been quite so brave?
The lady should have expressed her disapproval more quietly & privately. But the OP’s response was way out of line. Given the language skills he’s shown on this thread, the restaurant crowd was probably better off that he usually prefers silent communication.
My fiancée and I don’t have a problem with each other being on our phones while at restaurants or anywhere else really. I don’t have a problem with anyone else being on their phones unless it’s disturbing me in some way. Here are a few things that DO bother me:
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People who have extremely loud and annoying ring tones then spend five minutes searching through their purse/pockets to find their phone. Then they answer the call and their voice is just as annoying and loud as their ring tone!
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Having a conversation with someone, they receive a text, then pretend to listen when you can clearly tell they’re more interested in their text. I don’t think I’ve ever received a message THAT important. If I did, I’d stop the conversation, apologize, and probably go call whoever sent the message.
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Of course, I can’t stand it when I’m in a dark theater and see the distracting glow of a phone in the rows ahead of me.
I’m sure there are more, but it takes a lot to piss me off when it comes to stuff like this. Each couple is different, and some would rather sit in silence in the presence of their SO. I do text my fiancée a lot, even when we’re in the same room. Maybe just an “I love you” to see him smile. (Kind of corny, I know!) But, I say if it’s not directly disrupting others beyond just what they think, text away! I probably would’t have said anything to the lady. But if she would have stayed, I would have went out of my way to annoy her. 
I’d have made fun of you too, but probably only in my head or in a “snicker and point” sort of way. I just do not understand why people seem to be umbilically attached to their phones and have a need to be on them all the time, even in the presence of people they could be talking to. Yes, there are valid reasons to check email, but there are also reasons to wait and check that email in a few minutes when she gets up to pee and you have a moment alone. Just because you can access the entire internet from anywhere, anytime, doesn’t mean you need to.
If I see two people sitting at a table at a restaurant, both typing away on their phones, yes, I will find that funny and sad.
It is kind of sad that people just can’t sit and be present with each other anymore.
It’s kind of sad that people can’t let a long-time couple be present with each other in a way they find mutually acceptable.
I, too, think it was not about texting in a restaurant but instead about being “with” someone and (apparently) ignoring your companions in favor of your respective Blackberries.
I would not have said anything, since I’m often known to pull out my laptop in restaurants (yeah I’m a dinosaur and I hate those little cell phones).
Where I glare and start saying thing meant to be overheard is when you let your phone make ring tone sounds. And I’d do the same thing if you whipped out one of those game boy nuisances and started playing some damn game that goes beedle doop beep, too.
I don’t see where texting is intrusive. I do sort of get a flicker of “yeesh, can’t y’all put those down for a freaking MINUTE” sometimes. You’re eating a meal; you don’t need a table to use a cellphone, why not enjoy the meal and each others’ company and check the thing in the lobby or car or whatever? But none of my business.
True as far as it goes…
But the resulting twitter flood he started right after the incident nearly brought the tubes to a standstill.
Welcome to 20(almost)11! If two adults are perfectly content with simply being in each other’s presence, that’s something to envy. Want something else to poke fun at? I sit in one room on my laptop and he sits in the other on the PC and we play games together. We’re kind of geeky, and things like this makes us happy. Maybe you should focus on the status of your own relationship before you find something “sad” about the way others choose to interact.
“Look lady, my wife is deaf and mute.”
She probably should have texted him or sent him an e-mail.
I can’t wait for the opportunity to use this one. 
I don’t think your coworkers will think it terribly funny 
Mine sure didnt!
Good for you. I’m every bit as judgemental, and routinely see people doing things I think are sad or silly. The thing is though that as I accept that my own habits probably strike others as just as daft, I don’t comment out loud. Speck of dust, beam, etc.
We’re geeky too, and we’ll sometimes IM each other when we’re both in the house, in different rooms. But when I’m across a table from him at a restaurant, I won’t send him a smiley text. I’ll, you know, smile at him.
I guess I see a restaurant as an outing. We can be alone and quiet together at home anytime, but going out is like a date and I want us to have each other’s attention and discuss things. If we wanted to spend an hour together messing with our smartphones, why aren’t we on the couch at home? Obviously, YMMV, but that’s the way I see it, and that’s why I have a hard time understanding the OP’s point of view.
Maybe things will be different when we’ve been married ten or twenty years. But for now, I can’t imagine us going out, and not interacting.
Well, they probably didn’t sit there the entire time on their phones. Sounds like they were just patiently waiting and just happened to both be on their phones. I’m not geeky enough to send a text while I’m sitting right by him lol I’m not completely a dork. Also, I’m not saying spending all the time together at a restaurant on phones is okay. Just saying, it’s not going to upset me if my fiancée sends and receives a few messages while at the table. Maybe if he was ignoring me I’d be upset, but that’s not how it goes.
Whatever floats your boat!
I don’t text much. Probably because I don’t want to have to put on my reading glasses just to have a freaking conversation. It’s easier and more natural just to freaking talk on the freaking telephone.
That said, I have no problem with people texting when it’s appropriate. What bugs me is people who act like my brother does sometimes when we have an occasional guys night out.
I like to talk with my companion when I’m in the car. Not sit there ignored while he’s texting his friends. Then he does the same thing in the restaurant or whatever. Dude, I thought you wanted to spend some time with me. That means interacting. Why are we even out together?
If we rent a movie, his friends will start texting him during the movie. If I pause it he politely says “don’t stop it for me” and I’m left with the choice of continuing the movie even though I know he was being polite, or pausing it while he spends 10 minutes texting. When it’s over he asks to borrow the DVD for another day so he can watch it at home uninteruppted. Dude, wtf? If you didn’t want to watch it with me then why did we rent it together. I could have done something else tonight or maybe rented that movie that I really wanted to see. :mad:
This doesn’t apply to the OP, which is a different situation. Being a couple you spend most of your time together, plus you’re mutually agreeable to the texting. But I hate when you plan an evening with someone you don’t see constantly and they end up finding their other friends more interesting.
Which is exactly what the couple in the OP were doing.
Who’s stopping them?
“Look lady, I’m texting my wife; she thinks I’m at work.”