From the desk of: Cathy Coloff
Subject: Ring the dinner bell!
How many of you have a “no tech at the table” rule? I’ll admit, we’re guilty of letting our son Alex eat with his iPad or iPhone at the table when he’s eating solo; but for family meals, "the tech” must be put away. With the demands of everyone’s busy schedules, it is more difficult than ever to sit down together as a family to eat. Between sports, evening work commitments and just running errands, we’re lucky to have 2 or 3 meals together; so, it’s not much of a hardship despite Alex’s initial protests.
It also amazes me how much technology has impacted the dining out experience. So many restaurants have multiple TVs throughout, free Wi‑Fi and more. Some even have virtual reality stations...Ready Player One, here we come. I observed a group of teens at a local hamburger joint and they were texting with each other under the table instead of talking to each other directly. Now, I admit I’ve looked at my cell phone while dining out. But these days, I’m practicing at being mindful of only looking at my cell phone if the alert is truly urgent or if I want to share a favorite photo with my dining partners.
I also recently repurposed one of my old iPads into a rotating photo frame and was amused by Alex’s friend’s curiosity in the images and how I did it. I was happy to see the curiosity flicker in his eyes and the wonder of whether he could do the same or something better. Thankfully, in my experience, technology hasn’t dampened our human imagination but is, hopefully, expanding it to even greater futures. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my tech-free dinner with Doug and Alex and perhaps dessert too.
Happy dining everyone!
“Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.” - Gerald R. Ford
First published in our June 2019 IT Radix Resource newsletter
