The Phone Stack Game: reaching for your phone in a restaurant may cost you
Sick of people texting and talking on their cellphone during get-togethers at restaurants? A new game discourages such behaviour and can potentially cost the loser a lot of money.
Image Credit: Lil b/Tumblr
It’s something we’ve discussed here at Sync on several occasions: is it bad manners to text at the dinner table? It appears most of you say yes – it’s rude and you shouldn’t do it. I’ll even quote our very own Simon Cohen in his blog post Must you tweet your dinner? Really? saying, “And I think snapping photos of your dinner and tweeting your thoughts on each course isn’t acceptable in a fancy restaurant. I’m not even sure if it’s okay at a McDonalds.”
But despite our apparent distaste for gadget use at the table, a study by Retrevo claims nearly 50 percent of people under the age of 25 (27 percent of people over the age of 25) will allow themselves to be interrupted during a meal for an electronic message. The study is nearly two years old, but I’m sure things haven’t changed all the much … at least, not for the better.
I’d like to introduce you to an ingenious new game created by blogger/funk-style dancer, Brian “Lil b” Perez, called “Don’t Be A Di*k During Meals With Friends.” Needless to say, the media is picking up on its other name, “The Phone Stack Game.” How does it work? When you meet with your buddies at a restaurant and you have all placed your order, everyone puts their phones face-down on the table – whoever picks up their phone first, before the bill arrives, loses and has to pay for the entire meal. You can check out the rules, game variations and additional notes about the game by reading Lil b’s blog post. You can also check out his YouTube video below.
What do you think about the Phone Stack Game? Would playing this game be a free meal ticket for you or would you find yourself out of pocket way too often? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
My idea: adopt this game at home if gadgets at the dinner table are an issue. Rather than needing to pay for the meal, the loser needs to do the dishes or some other undesirable chore.
I think that this game is a great idea. I think it’s extremely rude of someone to text during a meal.
A couple of years ago, I had 6 people over for a bbq (dinner & drinks). One person was texting during the entire meal. I asked the person to stop a few times. After the 3rd time I ask them to leave.
GASP but without our phones how can we text the person to the right of us that the person to our left looks really bad today.
/sarcasm
Although it is funny when my friends and I go out, texting your phone is totally okay as long as you are actually being social and contributing to the conversation.
How true that is. I do not understand why anyone except a medical professional/lawyer/etc need to be in contact every second of the day with anyone else.
I have few clients that I will answer their calls at any time but most people can wait until I call or text them back. No one is more important than my children.
My wife and I went to a fancy eating establishment and a very young couple was sitting close to us. While the female was drooling over her date, all the guy could do was text on his phone.
This looks like an expensive proposition to get in on this game. I have never owned or used a cell phone and don’t plan on starting now.
I need a cell phone for work and emergencies of which I seem to have a lot of.
I misplaced my BlackBerry ( found it a few months later ) So I bought a basic phone. It saves me almost $90 per month vs my BB with data plan. To me that is a nice chunk of change left on my pocket.
We eat out once a week and I can’t believe the number of people I see answering their phone, texting at the table. We both turn our cellphones off (see look it’s that little button right there, just push it, it won’t explode I promise)
Perhaps next Chanukah/Christmas each ill-mannered friend should receive a book or two by author Emily Post. Commonsense and manners what a great concept, if it cannot be taught at home at least both should be taught at grade school and repeated in high school.
Even at home, all phones are shut off during meals and family times on the weekends. Dinner out is phoneless as well. My parents date night mantra is ‘’….don’t call us we’ll call you…’’. As my Dad says, we have voice mail so we are not enslaved to our technology and they are teaching us to be free from slavery.