Doesn't surprise me. Cell phones have become ingrained in our culture. We live in a new generation that is obscessed with electronic communication/social media. I won't be surprised if it becomes a disorder and makes its way into the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) one day. Cell phone addiction has been compared to compulsive buying and credit card misuse.

I hooked a guy in my unit (KC-135) a few months ago during his pre-instructor pilot upgrade training because he was texting while we were taxiing to the runway for takeoff. I'm in the left seat playing "student" when I just happen to look over at him and notice him texting away like a madman (the girlfriend, of course). So I decide to start drifting left of centerline to see how long it's going to take him to notice us heading toward the grass. I look back at my boom operator and another pilot in the JS to give'm a winky-winky and they both smiled. Well I get about as far left of centerline I can before our #2 engine is about to hang over the grass before I yelled, "Yo!" over interphone. He looks up like a deer in the headlights at me. I said, "Is someone close to you about to die or have a baby right now?!" and he said, "Um, no." and I said, "Ok, let's put the phone away then!". We flew the mission and he got an ass-chewing during the debrief along with an unsat for the ride.