A growing number of U.S. restaurants and bars are trying to get customers to set aside their smartphones during meals, driven by concerns that diners glued to their screens talk less with the people they came with, draining the point of eating together.
Some U.S. restaurants and bars are experimenting with ways to curb smartphone use at the table, The Wall Street Journal reported on the 14th.
The approaches vary, from storing phones away to not offering Wi-Fi at all. The aim is to turn restaurants back into places where people talk and socialize rather than simply eat.
Some outlets of fast-food chain Chick-fil-A run a "cellphone coop" program, offering a storage box for phones when customers ask for one. One version gives out free ice cream if no one at the table takes out a phone until everyone has finished eating.
The boxes also carry questions that diners can ask one another to keep conversation going during the meal.
Rather than banning phones outright, the approach uses rewards and playful touches to nudge customers into looking up from their screens on their own.
Antagonist, a cocktail bar in Charlotte, North Carolina, goes a step further. Customers are given a locking pouch to store their phones, and because only staff can open it, smartphone use inside the bar is effectively off-limits.
Adam Horner, general manager of Antagonist, said the rules are meant to recover the human interaction that technology has taken away.
"Some customers do find the rules puzzling," Horner said. "Some go elsewhere because they don't like them, but it's more important to create a space where people can mingle naturally."
The Edge, a restaurant in New York's Harlem, does not ban phones but provides no Wi-Fi. A sign in the dining room reads: "No Wi-Fi. No screens. Focus on each other." The idea is to let customers cut back on phone use on their own and pay attention to the people they came with.
The Journal noted that smartphones have become as routine a presence on the table as napkins or utensils, and that parts of the restaurant industry are beginning to frown on phone use during meals, much as they once started restricting smoking indoors.
