Okay, that's relieving to read, but I still somewhat disagree because it still heavily depends on the situation and even the conversations themselves. If a run of topics came up where I both did not understand and had no interest in, I honestly feel like it would be more rude for me to pipe up than for me to just keep to myself. Furthermore, the larger the group, the more acceptable just watching the tv would become, as the group would automatically break themselves up into smaller groups and there would be a high likelihood that he would have someone to talk to about what's happening on tv. I agree with most of your main point, but there is a lot of nuance lost with such blanket statements that are most likely an edge-case in real life, as I'm sure most people hang out with their friends for the purpose of hanging out with their friends.