Technology at the table

How often does your phone come to the table with you?

It might sit beside your plate while you eat, on the table while you talk, or in your hand while you're waiting for someone to finish speaking. We don't necessarily think much about it. Our phones have become part of everyday life.

Yet I wonder what happens to our attention when the phone comes to the table with us.

When the phone is there

We might be sitting around the table with family or friends, talking about our day. Then a phone lights up. Even if we don't pick it up, we notice.

Who was that? Is it important? Should I check? Sometimes we do.

We look down for a moment, then look back up and carry on, but the conversation has carried on too.

The little things we miss

It's not always the big parts of a conversation that we miss. It might be someone's expression when they say something. A joke we don't quite hear. A pause. Something someone was about to say.

We may not even realise we've missed it.

When we're all looking down

I sometimes wonder what it says about being together when everyone around the table is looking at a screen.

We're there. We're eating together. We might even be talking.

Yet our attention is scattered between the people at the table and whatever is happening on our phones.

It can happen so easily that we hardly notice.

Looking up

I'm not suggesting we should never have our phones at the table.

There are good reasons to have them there. We might need to take a call, show someone a photo or look something up.

Yet sometimes we might notice the phone and leave it where it is, and look up. See who is sitting across from us. Listen to what they're saying. Notice what is happening around the table.

I wonder what you might notice the next time you sit down with someone and your phone is within reach.