Unless these are your dining companions, how does what someone else does in a restaurant (i.e. texting or playing games on their phone) affect your enjoyment of your meal?

My phone goes on vibrate if I leave my house, and even vibrate is off if I’m working (during a show it’s either off in my bag or on airplane mode if I need it for time/stopwatch). In my industry we are on call 24/7/365 unless we put in otherwise. Sometimes it’s unavoidable to get a call you have to take when you’re eating, since our meal breaks are dependent on when we started work. Nobody thinks a thing of it if someone answers their phone while we’re eating. If it’s a call that’s going to take more than a minute, we walk away until it’s over. Or sometimes it’s a text conversation, in which case we stay at the table for however long it takes. Or it’s something you can ignore. The thing is, you don’t know that until you take out the phone and look at Caller ID.

That said, I can’t tell you the last time I ate a meal at a restaurant that had even a salad fork, much less the full complement of dinnerware. I guess if I went on dates or some such nonsense it might be a bigger issue, but I don’t much eat out with folks who don’t understand that sometimes the phone needs tending. Which really isn’t that big a deal when your idea of fancy involves food served on dishes with metal flatware as opposed to something served in paper or on cardboard that you eat with your hands or maybe a plastic spork. [;)]

Are you referring to putting your phone away and paying attention to those eating with you? There’s an App for that, it’s called “RESPECT.” I never make or take a call in public and I hate those that do. It’s rude, annoying, and disrespectful. Unless you’re a doctor, on call, and it’s an emergency or you’re the one experiencing an emergency, keep away from me with your cell phone usage or I’ll start singing this to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WGyf_RVLL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WGyf_RVLL8

What CSD said!

…….Same thing with letting your kids play games on cell phones while at the table.

I hate kids playing at my table when they should be in a cell. [:D]

Some even watch movies on their phones.   Squinting a phone that long would give me a headache! 

Glenn

I said the same thing, right up until I found myself without an option for other entertainment and watched a movie on my phone for the first time. Yeah, the screen is smaller than a laptop or TV (obviously), but the picture quality is excellent and there was absolutely no squinting involved, even without wearing my glasses. It depends on the quality of your phone’s screen and its size, of course, but today’s average smartphone has a perfectly fine screen for watching movies.

I tend to watch movies when I find myself unable to sleep, and picking my phone up off the nightstand without having to get out of bed or fire up my laptop is a godsend. Only problem I have now is I used to have unlimited data and now I’m restricted to 6GB/month, so I have to remember to switch over to wi-fi to stream anything.

I think the time (4.7 hours) is so high because many people today use their phone as their only computer /internet browswer.  In other words, instead of looking at Roadfood.com, and the weather report, and your work e-mails, etc. on your home computer or laptop computers, many people today look at all of these things on just their cell phone.  Some even watch movies on their phones.   Squinting a phone that long would give me a headache! 

Glenn

Chick-fil-A has found a spot for your cell phones during a meal with a cell phone coop [:D]

http://inside.chick-fil-a.com/all-cooped-up-how-one-chick-fil-a-operator-is-redefining-the-phrase http://inside.chick-fil-a.com/all-cooped-up-how-one-chick-fil-a-operator-is-redefining-the-phrase/

4.7 hours a day?  I don’t spend 4.7 minutes a day using my phone unless I’m taking pictures of food!

Half of the time I’m out of the house I end up forgetting to put my phone in my purse.  I really don’t care about it!

Chick-fil-A has found a spot for your cell phones during a meal with a cell phone coop [:D]

http://inside.chick-fil-a.com/all-cooped-up-how-one-chick-fil-a-operator-is-redefining-the-phrase http://inside.chick-fil-a.com/all-cooped-up-how-one-chick-fil-a-operator-is-redefining-the-phrase/

I use bluetooth.  Phone does not ring and I answer by pushing button on Bluetooth.  No different than having a conversation.  Never irritates anyone.  If the conversation is of a private nature, I take the phone outside.

Paul E. Smith

Knoxville, TN

Coincidentally, my mother and I went out for breakfast today after my doctor’s appointment. The people seated closest to us were about 15 feet away. No cell phones. But they were discussing their biology lab class, detailing dissecting some animal or another. Not exactly the conversation I wanted to accompany my eggs and bacon, really. But they were talking to one another across their table, not on cell phones. I’d take someone having a conversation on a cell phone right next to me about almost anything over that particular overheard subject.

I HATE Cell Phones while dining![:(!]

Good. Then stay home. You don't write the rules.

Back when cigarettes were allowed in restaurants we had someone light up just as we were ordering dessert. The restaurant wouldn't move them; so we cancelled dessert, reduced our gratuity, left and never returned.

Their restaurant – their rules. We didn't like them, so they never saw our business again.

Unless these are your dining companions, how does what someone else does in a restaurant (i.e. texting or playing games on their phone) affect your enjoyment of your meal?

It just ain’t good manners and ED – E – KIT!

Who wants to listen to their conversation about how their brother in law is runnin around on their sister. or the dog has diarrhea!

I find those same conversations distracting when they’re taking place between two people sitting at a table together with no phone in sight.

Exactly. A loud conversation is a loud conversation is a loud conversation – whether it is happening between two diners at the table nearest you or on a cell phone. The cell phone isn’t the problem, it is the obnoxious person speaking for all the world to hear. 

However, if I choose to text someone at the dinner table – not something I am prone to do, but given most people’s reliance on technology, it could be that the text is with someone who is planning to meet our group – the only people who are the least bit affected by it are those with whom I am dining. 

I am sure Miss Manners appreciates those that uphold 50-80 year old etiquette standards, but it was one of those old fogey singers – think his name was something like Bob Dylan – that said “the times they are a-changin’.” No one is asking you to partake, but it is none of your business what someone else is doing (reasonably quietly) at their own dinner table…in public or not. 

I sure am glad I don't live in AZ or TX. I don't notice people using phones in restaurants in NC & WI.

Here is your solution if this does bother you. When some fool was having a business meeting on his speaker phone at the airport, I pulled out my wireless communications device and started to record a video of his meeting. For some reason he moved away from me.

Unless these are your dining companions, how does what someone else does in a restaurant (i.e. texting or playing games on their phone) affect your enjoyment of your meal?

It just ain’t good manners and ED – E – KIT!

Who wants to listen to their conversation about how their brother in law is runnin around on their sister. or the dog has diarrhea!

I find those same conversations distracting when they’re taking place between two people sitting at a table together with no phone in sight.