Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

[jpatter666]

I found this today and it made so much sense.....something to think about next time you dine out.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html

We are a popular restaurant for both locals and tourists alike. Having been in business for many years we noticed that although the number of customer's we serve on a daily basis is almost the same today as it was 10 years ago, the service just seems super slow even thou we added lot's more staff and cut back on the menu items.

One of the most common complaints on review sites against us and many restaurants in the area is that the service was slow and or they needed to wait a bit long for a table.

We decided to hire a firm to help us solve this mystery, and naturally the first thing they blamed it on was that the employees need more training and that maybe the kitchen staff is just not up to the task of serving that many customers.

Like most restaurants in NYC we have a surveillance system, and unlike today where it's a digital system, 10 years ago we still used special high capacity tapes to record all activity. At any given time we had 4 special Sony systems recording multiple cameras. We would store the footage for 90 days just in case we need it for something.

The firm we hired suggested we locate some of the older tapes and analyze how the staff behaved 10 years ago versus how they behave now. We went down to our storage room but we couldn't find any tapes at all.

We did find the recording devices, and luckily for us, each device has 1 tape in it that we simply never removed when we upgraded to the new digital system.

The date stamp on the old footage was Thursday July 1 2004, the restaurant was real busy that day. We loaded up the footage on a large size monitor, and next to it on a separate monitor loaded up the footage of Thursday July 3 2014, the amount of customers where only a bit more than 10 years prior.

I will quickly outline the findings. We carefully looked at over 45 transactions in order to determine the data below:

2004:

Customers walk in.

They gets seated and are given menus, out of 45 customers 3 request to be seated elsewhere.

Customers on average spend 8 minutes before closing the menu to show they are ready to order.

Waiters shows up almost instantly takes the order.

Food starts getting delivered within 6 minutes, obviously the more complex items take way longer.

Out of 45 customers 2 sent items back that where too cold we assume (given they were not steak we assume they wanted the item heated up more).

Waiters keep an eye out for their tables so they can respond quickly if the customer needs something.

Customers are done, check delivered, and within 5 minutes they leave.

Average time from start to finish: 1:05

2014:
Customers walk in.

Customers get seated and is given menus, out of 45 customers 18 requested to be seated elsewhere.

Before even opening the menu they take their phones out, some are taking photos while others are simply doing something else on their phone (sorry we have no clue what they are doing and do not monitor customer WIFI activity).

7 out of the 45 customers had waiters come over right away, they showed them something on their phone and spent an average of 5 minutes of the waiter's time. Given this is recent footage, we asked the waiters about this and they explained those customers had a problem connecting to the WIFI and demanded the waiters try to help them.

Finally the waiters are walking over to the table to see what the customers would like to order. The majority have not even opened the menu and ask the waiter to wait a bit.

Customer opens the menu, places their hands holding their phones on top of it and continue doing whatever on their phone.

Waiter returns to see if they are ready to order or have any questions. The customer asks for more time.

Finally they are ready to order.

Total average time from when the customer was seated until they placed their order 21 minutes.

Food starts getting delivered within 6 minutes, obviously the more complex items take way longer.

26 out of 45 customers spend an average of 3 minutes taking photos of the food.

14 out of 45 customers take pictures of each other with the food in front of them or as they are eating the food. This takes on average another 4 minutes as they must review and sometimes retake the photo.

9 out of 45 customers sent their food back to reheat. Obviously if they didn't pause to do whatever on their phone the food wouldn't have gotten cold.

27 out of 45 customers asked their waiter to take a group photo. 14 of those requested the waiter retake the photo as they were not pleased with the first photo. On average this entire process between the chit chatting and reviewing the photo taken added another 5 minutes and obviously caused the waiter not to be able to take care of other tables he/she was serving.

Given in most cases the customers are constantly busy on their phones it took an average of 20 minutes more from when they were done eating until they requested a check. Furthermore once the check was delivered it took 15 minutes longer than 10 years ago for them to pay and leave.

8 out of 45 customers bumped into other customers or in one case a waiter (texting while walking) as they were either walking in or out of the Restaurant.

Average time from start to finish: 1:55

We are grateful for everyone who comes into our restaurant, after all there are so many choices out there. But can you please be a bit more considerate?

[lektrode]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

I found this today and it made so much sense.....something to think about next time you dine out.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/rnr/4562386373.html.....

2004:

Customers walk in.

They gets seated and are given menus, out of 45 customers 3 request to be seated elsewhere.....
...
Customers are done, check delivered, and within 5 minutes they leave.

Average time from start to finish: 1:05

2014:
Customers walk in.

Customers get seated and is given menus, out of 45 customers 18 requested to be seated elsewhere.

Before even opening the menu they take their phones out, some are taking photos while others are simply doing something else on their phone (sorry we have no clue what they are doing and do not monitor customer WIFI activity).

7 out of the 45 customers had waiters come over right away, they showed them something on their phone and spent an average of 5 minutes of the waiter's time. Given this is recent footage, we asked the waiters about this and they explained those customers had a problem connecting to the WIFI and demanded the waiters try to help them.

Finally the waiters are walking over to the table to see what the customers would like to order. The majority have not even opened the menu and ask the waiter to wait a bit.

Customer opens the menu, places their hands holding their phones on top of it and continue doing whatever on their phone.

Waiter returns to see if they are ready to order or have any questions. The customer asks for more time.

Finally they are ready to order.

Total average time from when the customer was seated until they placed their order 21 minutes.

Food starts getting delivered within 6 minutes, obviously the more complex items take way longer.

26 out of 45 customers spend an average of 3 minutes taking photos of the food.

14 out of 45 customers take pictures of each other with the food in front of them or as they are eating the food. This takes on average another 4 minutes as they must review and sometimes retake the photo.

9 out of 45 customers sent their food back to reheat. Obviously if they didn't pause to do whatever on their phone the food wouldn't have gotten cold.

27 out of 45 customers asked their waiter to take a group photo. 14 of those requested the waiter retake the photo as they were not pleased with the first photo. On average this entire process between the chit chatting and reviewing the photo taken added another 5 minutes and obviously caused the waiter not to be able to take care of other tables he/she was serving.

Given in most cases the customers are constantly busy on their phones it took an average of 20 minutes more from when they were done eating until they requested a check. Furthermore once the check was delivered it took 15 minutes longer than 10 years ago for them to pay and leave.

8 out of 45 customers bumped into other customers or in one case a waiter (texting while walking) as they were either walking in or out of the Restaurant.

Average time from start to finish: 1:55

We are grateful for everyone who comes into our restaurant, after all there are so many choices out there. But can you please be a bit more considerate?

this isnt surprising, is it?
i've noted the downhill trajectory of the sitdown restaurant experience for the past 10years myself - and this just confirms i havent been the only one to notice it...

its got to the point where i'd rather go to places where one serves oneself (other than the economic necessity of my own sitch) - or sit at the bar, where at least the bartenders are attentive (as most of the waitstaff is too busy texting, it would seem, at too many places these daze - have had it happen at supermarket checkout, where the cashier stops what they are doing (and i'll leave out the gender, even tho that is pertinent) - and checks/answers a text before they resume doing what they are there for)

just more evidence of the entitlement mentality of the 'self-esteem generation' ?
that link is behind the paywall - but this one spells it out in detail...

[flintlock]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

Its like this everywhere. People are simply distracted constantly. Its the ADD generation raised on the gateway drug TV and now completely hooked on smart phone crack. Watch people sometime. Its just a nervous habit. Constantly checking for something, they don't even know what it will be. Employees of retail stores can't focus on the customer long enough to ring up a simple transaction. I've had them stop and text and even hold private conversations while ringing me up! Construction workers make stupid mistakes because they are stopping and starting constantly, often to discuss personal matters, all while at work. And kids are even more ridiculous. Many couldn't tell you the directions home from their own school because they never look up from their stupid phones once. Hard to imagine what it will be like in 15 years!

[kriden]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

Funny you mention TV. I haven’t had cable service except for internet in many years. I had in installed a week ago just so I could watch Tour de France and World Cup finals tomorrow. I couldn’t believe the cost since I had to order some 500 channel package to get the only two channels I cared about. Scanning a bit through some of the other channels it amazes me that folk’s burn up their lives in front of this thing. As for me, the Tour de France is over in a couple of weeks and I will cancel everything.
And then there is this: Men would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit quietly

Anything but spending time thinking.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/...n-sit-quietly/

[pansceptic]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

flintlock, I am in construction management, and can tell you that Contractors are aware of the phone problem. One I know of will not hire smokers and has a rigid workplace rule: no phones; they have found that both waste a lot of time and interrupt the flow of work.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

flintlock, I am in construction management, and can tell you that Contractors are aware of the phone problem. One I know of will not hire smokers and has a rigid workplace rule: no phones; they have found that both waste a lot of time and interrupt the flow of work.

I have a number of staff who pretty much need to be on their company mobile phones most of the work day.

I also have a number of staff who have no need to be on work phones.

They are allowed to keep their phones on them(for receiving emergency calls only) but will be written up if used for non-emergency calls outside of breaks/lunch while on the clock.

-----

During table conversation while at restaurants I have a bad habit of constantly looking around at my surroundings, much to the dismay of my wife.

At a meal with business peers in Sydney late last year I distinctly recall seeing a number of young well dressed couples out for the evening at their own tables.

All of the couples were on their smart phones for much of the time.

It's always good to see young couples out enjoying themselves, but I recall it being quite sad to see.

I wonder what regret they may have in the future for having wasted time on their smart phone instead of being engaged in conversation and possibility with a beautiful young woman?

My wife and I rarely go out to dinner unless it involves formal functions...we prefer going out to lunch early before the crowds arrive.

The rule for us is no phones, unless it's to take emergency calls.

Life is short.....I doubt anyone will wish for more time on their smart phone looking back on their deathbed.

But human behavior and addictions/compulsions are a funny thing.

I can't help but think that smartphones have become like the latest generation of high tech LED slot/gambling machines.

I'd be very interested to learn more about the use of psychologists/behaviorists in the R&D of gambling/gaming machines....if it's as sophisticated as I think it may be.....and if it relates to smart phone app development.

[shiny!]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

At a meal with business peers in Sydney late last year I distinctly recall seeing a number of young well dressed couples out for the evening at their own tables.

All of the couples were on their smart phones for much of the time.

It's always good to see young couples out enjoying themselves, but I recall it being quite sad to see.

It is sad. Two days after my husband died, my stepson and DIL flew into town to take me to dinner because it was my birthday. The whole time we were at the restaurant they sat bent over their iPhones, texting and checking sports scores. Occasionally they would make a comment to each other about an email. When the waitress came to clear our plates, DIL looked up for the first time to suggest that I order the ice cream cookie for dessert. Then she went back to her phone.

I felt like since they had flown a thousand miles to take me to dinner it would have been rude to complain, so I sat there and didn't say anything. I just wondered why they even bothered.

I can't help but think that smartphones have become like the latest generation of high tech LED slot/gambling machines.

I'd be very interested to learn more about the use of psychologists/behaviorists in the R&D of gambling/gaming machines....if it's as sophisticated as I think it may be.....and if it relates to smart phone app development.

I think you're on to something, lakedamonian. The way people relate to their phones looks very much like addictive behavior.

Have you noticed that when having a conversation with someone, if their phone rings most people will always interrupt the conversation to respond? Every single call or text is more important than the person who is standing right in front of them. Even if they don't answer, they'll interrupt to see who's calling. It is SO RUDE.

It's not just for emergencies, either. They'll interrupt a conversation to say, "Hi, Bob. How you doin'? Yeah, that was a great game yesterday. Uh huh... Uh huh... Hey, listen, I'm at a friend's house having dinner. Can I call you back?"

They don't think about it. It's an automatic Pavlovian response. They'll do it when they're driving, too. Seeing who's calling is a far more compelling need than driving safely. Someone could have just posted to their facebook page!

Everywhere I go now I see people with their heads down, absorbed in their phones with no awareness of the world around them. Standing in lines... sitting in waiting rooms... people used to strike up friendly conversations with strangers, but now everyone is tapping away at their phone and avoiding each other's eyes.

What did they do before cellphones? Did they stay at home and sit by the phone, afraid to miss a call? No. Yet somehow they survived and the world kept spinning...

As one of the few people left who doesn't have a cellphone, much less a smartphone, it seems as if society has lost its collective mind, not to mention its manners, and I feel like I'm the only one who noticed.

God I'm getting old!

[jk]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

this line of conversation interests me. it's as if "the matrix" is a metaphor for what we're in the process of creating. instead of our bodies being in vats and sharing a computer generated illusion of life, we live and work here in meatspace, while cyberspace and the cloud becomes more and more our true reality. just think of someone staring down at their little screen as the functional equivalent of having that metal cap with the wires that suck your energy while you dream you are living a life.

[jpatter666]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

Funny you mention TV. I haven’t had cable service except for internet in many years. I had in installed a week ago just so I could watch Tour de France and World Cup finals tomorrow. I couldn’t believe the cost since I had to order some 500 channel package to get the only two channels I cared about. Scanning a bit through some of the other channels it amazes me that folk’s burn up their lives in front of this thing. As for me, the Tour de France is over in a couple of weeks and I will cancel everything.
And then there is this: Men would rather give themselves electric shocks than sit quietly

Anything but spending time thinking.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/...n-sit-quietly/

We had a minimal package and were livid to find that to get the World Cup in HD (which meant ESPN) we had to upgrade two levels (quite expensive).

The number of actual channels we watch can be counted on one hand.

[EJ]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

So my friends' new restaurant that opened this summer on Martha's Vineyard is proving to be transformational for the island, as my friend John envisioned and realized with sacrifice, effort, and skill. No doubt it will be billed as an "overnight success." But what he went through to get here! No one but John and Rene's closest friends have any idea.

This is as it is for the entrepreneur, the creators of value and wealth, the bedrock of society.

No a restaurant is not a big idea. But changing a place that is as entrenched and as resistant to change as Martha's Vineyard takes unique vision and persistence.

It will change the whole island and in a good way.

Maybe he'll get credit for it.

[shiny!]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

So my friends' new restaurant that opened this summer on Martha's Vineyard is proving to be transformational for the island, as my friend John envisioned and realized with sacrifice, effort, and skill. No doubt it will be billed as an "overnight success." But what he went through to get here! No one but John and Rene's closest friends have any idea.

This is as it is for the entrepreneur, the creators of value and wealth, the bedrock of society.

No a restaurant is not a big idea. But changing a place that is as entrenched and as resistant to change as Martha's Vineyard takes unique vision and persistence.

It will change the whole island and in a good way.

Maybe he'll get credit for it.

I'm glad your friends are achieving their dream, making the world a happier place one lovely latte at a time :-)

It's nice to read good news for a change. Thanks for sharing, EJ.

[shiny!]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

this line of conversation interests me. it's as if "the matrix" is a metaphor for what we're in the process of creating. instead of our bodies being in vats and sharing a computer generated illusion of life, we live and work here in meatspace, while cyberspace and the cloud becomes more and more our true reality. just think of someone staring down at their little screen as the functional equivalent of having that metal cap with the wires that suck your energy while you dream you are living a life.

What an astute observation!

I'm not praying for another economic collapse, but to my mind it wouldn't be an entirely bad thing if people have to give up their unlimited phone plans and cable TV for awhile. Who knows, once the withdrawal passes they might actually wake up and start talking to each other in the real world again.

Maybe it'll require an EMP.

Smartphones are killing us — and destroying public life

Hey, you -- look up! Our iPhone addictions are wrecking public spaces and fraying the urban social fabric

Henry Grabar

The host collects phones at the door of the dinner party. At a law firm, partners maintain a no-device policy at meetings. Each day, a fleet of vans assembles outside New York’s high schools, offering, for a small price, to store students’ contraband during the day. In situations where politeness and concentration are expected, backlash is mounting against our smartphones.

In public, of course, it’s a free country. It’s hard to think of a place beyond the sublime darkness of the movie theater where phone use is shunned, let alone regulated. (Even the cinematic exception is up for debate.) At restaurants, phones occupy that choice tablecloth real estate once reserved for a pack of cigarettes. In truly public space — on sidewalks, in parks, on buses and on trains — we move face down, our phones cradled like amulets.

No observer can fail to notice how deeply this development has changed urban life. A deft user can digitally enhance her experience of the city. She can study a map; discover an out-of-the-way restaurant; identify the trees that line the block and the architect who designed the building at the corner. She can photograph that building, share it with friends, and in doing so contribute her observations to a digital community. On her way to the bus (knowing just when it will arrive) she can report the existence of a pothole and check a local news blog.

It would be unfair to say this person isn’t engaged in the city; on the contrary, she may be more finely attuned to neighborhood history and happenings than her companions. But her awareness is secondhand: She misses the quirks and cues of the sidewalk ballet, fails to make eye contact, and limits her perception to a claustrophobic one-fifth of normal. Engrossed in the virtual, she really isn’t here with the rest of us.

Consider the case of a recent murder on a San Francisco train. On Sept. 23, in a crowded car, a man pulls a pistol from his jacket. In Vivian Ho’s words: “He raises the gun, pointing it across the aisle, before tucking it back against his side. He draws it out several more times, once using the hand holding the gun to wipe his nose. Dozens of passengers stand and sit just feet away — but none reacts. Their eyes, focused on smartphones and tablets, don’t lift until the gunman fires a bullet into the back of a San Francisco State student getting off the train.”

---

---

The incident is a powerful example of the sea change that public space has suffered in the age of hand-held computing. There are thousands of similar stories, less tragic, more common, that together sound the alarm for a new understanding of public space – one that accounts for the pervasiveness of glowing rectangles.

The glut of information technology separating us from our surroundings extends well beyond our pocket computers. “Never has distraction had such capacity to become total,” writes the urban theorist Malcolm McCullough in “Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information.” “Enclosed in cars, often in headphones, seldom in places where encounters are left to chance, often opting out of face-to-face meetings, and ever pursuing and being pursued by designed experiences, post-modern post urban city dwellers don’t become dulled into retreat from public life; they grow up that way. The challenge is to reconnect.”

McCullough sees ambient information, from advertisements to the music in shops to Taxi TV, as an assault on our attention. But he’s no Luddite, and he’s not oblivious to the powerful ideas that spring from the shared ground of technology and urbanism, like Citizen Science, SeeClickFix or “Smart Cities.” What he’s calling for, in Ambient Commons, is “information environmentalism,” the idea that the proliferation of embedded information deserves attention and study, from planners, architects, politicians and especially from you and me.

Personal technology may be only a small part of McCullough’s interpretation of “peak distraction,” but for most people, the computer, tablet and phone are a focal point. What permanent connectivity does to our minds is the subject of great debate. What it does to public space is less often acknowledged. Essentially, smartphone users in public operate under the illusion that they are in private. They exist, in the words of two Israeli researchers, in “portable, private, personal territories.” Their memories of visited places are much worse than those of control subjects.

Our current strategy is to wire everything, everywhere — Wi-Fi in parks and subway tunnels; chargers in the squares bubbling with free electrical current like Roman drinking fountains. McCullough believes this freedom is irreversible. “To restrict information would be unacceptable,” he writes. “The communications rights of individuals and communities must be inalienable, insuppressible, and not for sale.” The tasks of filtering and decorum, he believes, fall to us as individuals.

Not everyone is so sure. Evgeny Morozov, reviewing McCullough’s book in the New Yorker, approvingly cites the Dutch writer Christoph Lindner’s argument for “slow spots” in cities. Morozov points out that the candy bar Kit Kat (“give me a break!”) has set up benches with Wi-Fi blockers in Amsterdam. Would we like to see such a thing occur on a larger scale, in a museum, park or in a neighborhood?

Of the three interwoven motivations for such regulations — danger, civility and health — the first has been the most effective. Just as 41 states rapidly banned texting while driving, there are rumblings of “texting while walking” bans in reaction to pedestrian fatalities. Last year, Fort Lee, N.J., made international news when it began issuing jaywalking tickets to errant, phone-in-hand pedestrians who had veered into traffic. Distracted walking bans have been proposed (with little success, so far) in Arkansas, Illinois, Utah, New York and Nevada. New York City paints “LOOK!” in its crosswalks.

In Japan, more than a dozen people fall off railway platforms while looking at their phones each year. Some pundits there have called for bans on texting while walking modeled after successful “smoking while walking” campaigns. Train station announcements remind commuters to look where they’re going, and even mobile phone companies have begun to educate users about the dangers of looking at a phone while walking.

But for all the talk of danger, it’s clear that the more frequent problem with “distracted walking” is that it’s annoying – and one of several uncivil side effects of smartphone growth. Thus we have the “phone stack” game, where participants compete not to use their phones, and the Guardian columnist who has pledged to almost bump into smartphone walkers, to teach ‘em a lesson. Blind people in Japan say they are being jostled like never before; a man in a Seattle restaurant took a break from his three companions to watch “Homeland” on his iPad. Some restaurants, bars and coffee shops have banned smartphones and computers for their corrosive social effects.

Anti-technology zoning for cognitive health – to protect us from our own worst instincts – is a more complex challenge. Ought urban parks, designed as restorative environments for a different age, be adapted to insulate visitors from the Internet as from noise, traffic and commerce? The fact that you can address the connectivity problem yourself – just turn it off – doesn’t preclude the possibility of an enforced solution. Airlines turn off the cabin lights despite the existence of blinders; earplugs don’t reduce the popularity of Amtrak’s Quiet Car. William Powers’ idea for digitally free “Walden Zones,” for example, has caught on in libraries – though because work, relaxation and distraction look so similar, the rules are hard to design. (A ready counter-argument: We are all so addicted to our media that withdrawal could be more stressful than blissful, buzzing distraction.)

Broadly speaking, any such regulations would require agreement that public computing has negative externalities — that your hand-held device is my problem.

McCullough is eager to situate these concerns in history, and refers to movements against invasive advertising, light pollution and smog. Morozov is particularly interested in the history and success of the anti-noise campaigners who reshaped the sound of the city.
But while it is obvious that light, noise and smoke corrupt darkness, silence and clean air, the consequences of smartphone use are far more opaque. What, exactly, does the man texting at the bar disrupt? Is the situation different if he is watching a violent movie or playing a visually arresting game? What does it mean to fellow patrons if his face is bathed in the steady glow of an e-book?

In the past, it has taken decades to pinpoint the external costs of other people’s activities. Though smoking was often considered a bother in the 19th century, it wasn’t until the 1920s that the aggravated parties coined the expression “secondhand smoke.” (All this far before any awareness of its health risks.)

It seems clear that there is such a thing as secondhand glow. It impedes our movement on busy sidewalks, breaks our concentration in movie theaters and libraries, and makes our public places as dull and private as phone booths. The question is what to do about it.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

I think you're on to something, lakedamonian. The way people relate to their phones looks very much like addictive behavior.

Have you noticed that when having a conversation with someone, if their phone rings most people will always interrupt the conversation to respond? Every single call or text is more important than the person who is standing right in front of them. Even if they don't answer, they'll interrupt to see who's calling. It is SO RUDE.

It's not just for emergencies, either. They'll interrupt a conversation to say, "Hi, Bob. How you doin'? Yeah, that was a great game yesterday. Uh huh... Uh huh... Hey, listen, I'm at a friend's house having dinner. Can I call you back?"

They don't think about it. It's an automatic Pavlovian response. They'll do it when they're driving, too. Seeing who's calling is a far more compelling need than driving safely. Someone could have just posted to their facebook page!

Everywhere I go now I see people with their heads down, absorbed in their phones with no awareness of the world around them. Standing in lines… sitting in waiting rooms... people used to strike up friendly conversations with strangers, but now everyone is tapping away at their phone and avoiding each other's eyes.

What did they do before cellphones? Did they stay at home and sit by the phone, afraid to miss a call? No. Yet somehow they survived and the world kept spinning...

When I was a kid my parents encouraged me to read…….I read pretty much anything/everything voraciously.

And that included at the dinner table.

My response to my parents when they asked me to put the book down and talk was, "But I thought you wanted me to read?"

I still read like crazy and fill the house with books(real and digital) and we have carried on the tradition with our kids by living in a literal library with characteristics of a house.

But we do NOT tolerate reading at the dinner table when we get to eat as a family.

I have always viewed reading books as like eating a hearty/healthy meal.

And I've come to view a substantial chunk of the most popularised sets of "organised words" and images on the internet/smartphone as junk food.

Digital junk food is nice……but I reckon books are better…and there's a time and a place to "eat" both digital content junk food and meals found in books.

-----

A professional role has compelled me to develop higher level people skills, particularly in dealing with complete strangers.

It's interesting to notice individual human behaviour in a crowded public setting.

In an environment where you could be stuck in close proximity with strangers for long periods of time, the funny thing is human behaviour in many cultures is such that if you do not engage those in close proximity to you very quickly, odds are there will be no interaction/communication.

I see people all the time who enter crowded public spaces and immediately go "shields up!" with their smart phone.

It's funny, silly, and sad.

I almost hope someone could develop a game app for smart phones that would actually depend on close proximity cooperation to force real world communication.

-----

While my wife and I place great emphasis on formal educational learning, and the aforementioned self-learning thru reading and exploration…….our greatest emphasis is on helping our children develop fearless people skills.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

I'm truly bad at answering my phone. Really I am. I think mine has been off for two days. Everyone gets mad at me for it.

But sometimes when me and the better half go out for an evening, we'll take hers out and play a game of scrabble or trivia on it over drinks after dinner. They keep on getting rid of pool tables and dart boards everywhere around here, I suppose to maximize eating table space and profit after watching Gordon Ramsey or something, so the phone is nice to bring out for games. Although I miss the days when I'd drag a cribbage board and a deck of cards out to the old watering hole. I suppose I just stopped because nobody else does it any more.

Smartphones are a tool. Just like computers. And I think you're all right about the addictive thing. Some folks can't put them down. It has to be worse if you grew up with it, or with a cell phone in general. The behavior's ingrained then. But I know plenty of folks 'over the hill' who can't put theirs down either. I'm just glad I found a cheap-o $19/mo plan since I use the thing so infrequently anyways...

[LazyBoy]

Re: Why do restaurants take so long these days? Blame your smartphone!

My wife and I are guilty of phone use (data, not calls) at restaurants even though we hold a hard line during meals at home. I'll have to think about why.

Anyway, here's a game that will help when out with a group: everyone puts their phone face down in a stack and the first one to pick theirs up pays the tab. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.1006998

Regarding distracted walking: