<story><title>Restaurant offers a 5% discount if you eat without your phone on the table</title><url>http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/16/technology/restaurant-cell-phone-discount/index.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tokenadult</author><text>I keep my phone in my pocket unless I am answering a call. (I used to keep my phone in a holster unless I was answering a call, but &quot;smart&quot; phones have an inconvenient form factor for that. So I&apos;ve modified my wardrobe to include more shirts that can hold a smart phone in one pocket while all the usual things I&apos;ve put in my primary shirt pocket for years can stay in that pocket.)&lt;p&gt;One of the most enjoyable aspects of dining with other people is the conversation over dinner. I would hate to miss out on that for telephone calls that I can answer later. Voice mail for the win.&lt;p&gt;AFTER EDIT:&lt;p&gt;Other comments here mention using phones in movie theaters. The response of the Austin Drafthouse theater in Austin, Texas is famous. The theater&apos;s video with a recorded comment from an ejected customer became a viral video on YouTube,&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;reported on in various news outlets. (The language of the video is rather crude, but it makes the theater&apos;s point that it doesn&apos;t want customers who use their phones in the theater.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Restaurant offers a 5% discount if you eat without your phone on the table</title><url>http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/16/technology/restaurant-cell-phone-discount/index.html</url><text></text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nagrom</author><text>I get really annoyed when I eat with someone and they have their phone on the table. There&apos;s something about that behaviour that seems to say &quot;I&apos;ll pay attention to you for now, but I&apos;m really hoping for a distraction.&quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;d much rather go to a restaurant where phone use is discouraged as it seems to have become socially acceptable to fuck around with phones even during face-to-face conversation with someone.&lt;p&gt;Regarding ROI: if I were to run the restaurant, I&apos;d have opaquely added the same charge to all the menu items and remove it for good behaviour. I guess that rewards for not being a dick are more popular than explicit punishments for being a dick?</text></comment>