Speaking as someone who had battled and defeated a real addiction (alcoholism) I find the term is being slung around rather blithely here.

Doing something repeatedly that causes pleasure and does no harm is not an addiction. It is just what sentient creatures do.

When I was living on a bench with no concern other than where the next bottle of white cider was coming from, I would have chewed off my own arm to just be addicted to Facebook.

Sorry if that was over emotive. This guy has pissed me off. And yes, wack, I'm perfectly able to express that, I just find sarcasm a more appropriate response.

However, seeing that you do not even understand the point of small talk I doubt you can understand why even if I tried to explain.

Care to enlighten us, then? What, in your own words, is the point of small talk?

Playing devil's advocate, who says it isn't actually better to spend the majority of time on social networks rather than socialising face-to-face?

What makes your preferred social norm superior to that which apparently actually exists?

We're not built to handle it. We need body language and facial cues to fully understand and appreciate what's going on.

Naturalistic fallacy. We're not "built" to live in cities, drive cars, or eat food that's the product of high-technology agriculture, either, yet we seem to be getting along just fine doing those things.

On topic: if I get a phone call or a text, it probably IS more important than small-talk, so I'm going to take a look. In the interest of politeness, if I'm in the middle of a conversation I might say something to excuse myself like, "hang on, I'm getting a message here, just a second" or "hmm, I have a phone call, who would call me at this hour?" If I'm not in the middle of a conversation, how likely is it that somebody's paying attention to me, anyway?

None of those options is the correct one. If you don't like the conversation you at least pretend to listen. However, seeing that you do not even understand the point of small talk I doubt you can understand why even if I tried to explain.

Why should you pretend to listen? That is basically the same as being forced to be involved, without actually getting to do anything. There is zero benefit to yourself to sit there pretending to listen, and all you're doing is stroking the ego of the other people and lying to them.

I'm very well aware of the purpose of small talk, and frankly take a rather dim view of anyone who insists they actually need it. If they want small talk, then go find someone else who enjoys its.

Do you like being whipped or having hot wax dribbled on your bits? No? Well then maybe you shouldn't hang out in the BDSM club. You, in your insistence on Everyone conducting small talk and such, are akin to the sadist, and insisting that the entire world become your club and everyone must conduct themselves in the same manner as you.

Did someone mention hot wax and whips? For a minute I thought I was on the wrong forum... Carry on :)