Not quite what you’re talking about (though I’m familiar with that phenomenon, too!) — and I think that bees are really connecting with each other even though they seem in their own little individually buzzing worlds when they do that. So maybe a better one would be “i-tuning out?”

Seriously though – in my travels I see people communicating to no one all the time. Their borg-like microphones in their ears, pacing the Red Carpet Room, hands flying, words spewing forth, to no one in particular.

5 years ago, this person would’ve been feared. Thought insane, and probably eventually ushered away. In handcuffs.

Today, it’s business as usual.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……

I see this all the time with people in meetings and it took some time to get used to. They’re effectively leaving the room for a few seconds or minutes and then come back in — all while staying in their seat around the table.

When somebody receives a voice call on their cell phone they always give off either obvious or subtle physical cues to your fellow group mates that you’re not “all there”, and the group dynamic changes accordingly — similar to if somebody came over and started a whispering conversation with them. Even headset talkers stare into space while they talk with the unseen person on the unseen cell phone, showing that they’re not taking part in the dynamics of their physical group.