The face-down phone isn't about secrecy. It's a quiet act of autonomy from people who learned, often the hard way, that being constantly reachable carries a real psychological cost — and the wrist turn is the only sovereignty they have left.
Everyone thinks they know what it means when someone flips their phone face-down at a table. They’re wrong.
The common reading is that the person is being secretive. Or rude. Or hiding something on the screen from the person across the table. None of... [9594 chars]