Do you tolerate smartphones at the dinner table?

[Dembadon]

There are a couple different cases that affect my feelings about distractions at the dinner table:

Case 1: The child is so young that it can't follow an adult conversation. If this is the case, finding something to keep them occupied while waiting for the food to come is fine. I used to color or read a book; now it's probably more common to see kids with smartphones.

Case 2: The person is old enough to participate but is using the phone/device to avoid interaction with guests/hosts. This is what I find to be rude. It's just the way I was raised. The belief was pretty much, "I know you're feeling anti-social, but suck-it-up for an hour and visit with our guests."

 

[Danger]

The belief was pretty much, "I know you're feeling anti-social, but suck-it-up for an hour and visit with our guests."

But that shouldn't apply to someone who doesn't want to be there in the first place. When I was specifically invited to someone's home for whatever, along with my parents, I went gladly and was polite to the hosts or declined politely with a legitimate reason. If my parents were invited and dragged me along, I made it clear to the hosts that it wasn't my wish to be there. I wasn't rude to them, but pointed out that I had no interest in whatever was going on and would rather be elsewhere.
My rule about distractions at the table is that if you get between my food and me, you do so at your peril.

 

[Pythagorean]

Smart phones at the dinner table are annoying; it's much easier to type one-handed with a full size keyboard so I just bring my laptop.

 

[Hobin]

Smart phones at the dinner table are annoying; it's much easier to type one-handed with a full size keyboard so I just bring my laptop.

*winces at the thought of spilling a drink over his shiny laptop*

 

[Pythagorean]

My wife makes me use a sippy cup :(

 

[genericusrnme]

My wife makes me use a sippy cup :(

One of these bad boys?

 

[Pythagorean]

One of these bad boys?

I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those! I have the Boon model:

 

[genericusrnme]

I wouldn't be caught dead in one of those! I have the Boon model:

The coolest cup in the cupboard. One look at the streamlined, two-handed design and you'll want to get your hands on Fluid. (Or wear it like a bracelet.) It's got a unique grip that little kids love. It's also spill-resistant, so everything in a 20-foot radius has a better chance of staying clean and dry.

Oh man, I'm sold!
I'll be at my local Boon Inc dealership first thing tomorrow morning

 

[Danger]

That looks a lot like the thing that my mother had to sit on after her haemorrhoid operation.

 

[turbo]

*winces at the thought of spilling a drink over his shiny laptop*

We have a new ASUS laptop. Unfortunately, my wife is a klutz, and loves to mix apple cider and fruit juices. I keep moving her glass farther and farther from the laptop to prevent expensive repair bills.

 

[Danger]

We have a new ASUS laptop. Unfortunately, my wife is a klutz, and loves to mix apple cider and fruit juices. I keep moving her glass farther and farther from the laptop to prevent expensive repair bills.

I feel for you, Bro. I had to shell out the $1,200 for this MacBook because the ex (accidentally, drunkenly) dumped a beer into my Blueberry. Unfortunately, I could not (and still can't) afford to replace the Illustrator CS and Photoshop CS that are in it with Intel Mac compatible versions. Here I am stuck with Inkscape and Gimpshop. (They're good, but not what I was used to.)

 

[BobG]

The coolest cup in the cupboard. One look at the streamlined, two-handed design and you'll want to get your hands on Fluid. (Or wear it like a bracelet.) It's got a unique grip that little kids love. It's also spill-resistant, so everything in a 20-foot radius has a better chance of staying clean and dry.

We're talking about little kids, here. I believe their claim that everything in a 20-foot radius will stay dry, but I don't believe everything will stay clean.

Best bet is to buy a cup that will spew water over a 20-foot radius, rinsing away all of the jelly fingerprints (even better is if it cleans the greasy fingerprints left from after I worked on my Jeep).

 

[jhae2.718]

Or does that mean we just haven't gone far enough? We need cars that drive themselves so we can focus on the more important things in life, such as texting our friends.

I would actually love to see self-driving cars. If done properly, I think it would be a lot safer, as [STRIKE]morons[/STRIKE] people who may or may not be distracted would no longer have control of a motor vehicle.

I'd also like to be able to work during commutes rather than the pedestrian task of driving.

 

[Dembadon]

I would actually love to see self-driving cars. If done properly, I think it would be a lot safer, as [STRIKE]morons[/STRIKE] people who may or may not be distracted would no longer have control of a motor vehicle.

I'd also like to be able to work during commutes rather than the pedestrian task of driving.

It just opens the door for other types of disasters when the "manual override" feature fails after the "autopilot" on the car goes bonkers. Maybe we'd have to equip them with an ejection system or something.

 

[Danger]

the pedestrian task of driving.

I thought that the pedestrian task was walking...