Cool Or Not Cool: Reading The Newspaper At Brunch?

This past weekend I had brunch with a few friends at Juventino. Halfway through my meal (cage-free truffled eggs with a side of cheese polenta, btw), I turned around and noticed that the couple sitting next to us was reading the Sunday Times while waiting for their food. Both were IMMERSED in their respective newspaper sections. They weren't talking. They weren't looking at one another. Hell, they were hardly even touching.

There didn't seem to be any bad blood between them. No noticeable tension or arguments. Yet I found it really odd that they had gone out of their way to go out to a restaurant, and yet they sat in silence. Shouldn't they be talking? Catching up on their lives? And reading the goddamn paper at home?

They weren't alone in this act, either. My friends pointed out (while I secretly snapped the above picture) that the diners at the table behind me were doing the exact same thing! And it didn't stop when the food came. At both tables, they just kept reading, occasionally taking a bite of their food here and there. But no talking.

Is this what married people do when they're in LTRs? Do they get so bored that it's just easier to spend quality time completely ignoring one another? Seems way lame, but maybe I'm being snarky and judgmental. 

So help me out here, Park Slope. Cool or not cool?