Chatting with a food consultant buddy about food trends not long ago, she mentioned the rise of something she called “technology food”, that is, food you can eat with one hand while using technology. People eating a sandwich at their desks obviously isn’t a new phenomenon but apparently we’re all so busy and tech-savvy these days that we need to multitask mealtimes with tapping away at our computers, iphones and blackberries, or making calls on our mobile phones.
I like technology as much as the next person, own a laptop and a mobile that I’m rarely parted from, and spend a good part of my day online, but I’ve started to wonder if all this technology isn’t making us just a little bit socially inept. There is a reason that blackberries have earnt the nickname “Crackberry” and iphones seem to inspire even greater levels of addiction in their owners (if you're not at work check out http://www.guyswithiphones.com/ for proof). When people start checking their Facebook accounts at the pub you’ve got to raise an eyebrow.
Friends often express surprise when I don’t answer my mobile when it rings in their company. Umm, would you prefer I ignored you and yacked on to someone else for five minutes instead?
I know it’s not a universal viewpoint but not taking the call (or returning a text) seems to be a matter of courtesy to me, especially during a meal. If you must take a call, why not excuse yourself from the table for a few moments and take the call somewhere quiet? Like outside, so the whole restaurant doesn’t have to become a captive audience to your (usually not very interesting) conversation. And please don’t place your mobile phone on the table (it’s mostly guys who are guilty of this) like it's some sort of high-tech religious effigy. Rightly or wrongly, it makes me think you’re desperate for it to ring.
Earlier this year I read a news story in the Daily Telegraph which reported that the manager of Bakers Delight in Cronulla, sick of obnoxious customers chatting on their phones while ordering their bread, had banned mobile phones in the store. Good for her. Just because technology allows us to talk on the phone whenever and wherever we want these days, it doesn’t mean we should.
As for “technology food”? Sounds like a recipe for indigestion.
I like technology as much as the next person, own a laptop and a mobile that I’m rarely parted from, and spend a good part of my day online, but I’ve started to wonder if all this technology isn’t making us just a little bit socially inept. There is a reason that blackberries have earnt the nickname “Crackberry” and iphones seem to inspire even greater levels of addiction in their owners (if you're not at work check out http://www.guyswithiphones.com/ for proof). When people start checking their Facebook accounts at the pub you’ve got to raise an eyebrow.
Friends often express surprise when I don’t answer my mobile when it rings in their company. Umm, would you prefer I ignored you and yacked on to someone else for five minutes instead?
I know it’s not a universal viewpoint but not taking the call (or returning a text) seems to be a matter of courtesy to me, especially during a meal. If you must take a call, why not excuse yourself from the table for a few moments and take the call somewhere quiet? Like outside, so the whole restaurant doesn’t have to become a captive audience to your (usually not very interesting) conversation. And please don’t place your mobile phone on the table (it’s mostly guys who are guilty of this) like it's some sort of high-tech religious effigy. Rightly or wrongly, it makes me think you’re desperate for it to ring.
Earlier this year I read a news story in the Daily Telegraph which reported that the manager of Bakers Delight in Cronulla, sick of obnoxious customers chatting on their phones while ordering their bread, had banned mobile phones in the store. Good for her. Just because technology allows us to talk on the phone whenever and wherever we want these days, it doesn’t mean we should.
As for “technology food”? Sounds like a recipe for indigestion.
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