4 ms·

Phone free resturants if you're eating alone sounds kind of miserable. Sometimes i want to read something while i wait for my food to come out.

by bawolff 7mo ago

Aboutplants 7mo ago
Good news! If your alone there are other options!
- bawolff 7mo ago
  Can you be specific what you mean by that. Are you just saying if you are alone you should go to other resturants? I mean, sure that is true, but that logic would also apply to a resturant that spits in your food.
troymc 7mo ago
Maybe bring a (printed) book, brochure, flyer, or treatise on the nocturnal behaviours of silkworms?
- bawolff 7mo ago
  Do you commonly carry those around with you? I'm not mistaking a resturant for a library, i just want to kill time until my food comes out. Is there a reason why someone sitting by themselves reading a book on the e-reader app on their phone is more offensive than someone sitting by themselves reading a dead tree book?
  - Acrobatic_Road 7mo ago
    It's not hard to bring a book with you. People did it before phones. And I don't know what you're doing when you're transfixed by your phone and I'm not going to peer over your screen to find out.
    - fc417fc802 7mo ago
      You dodged the question. You don't know what he's using his phone for. Fair enough. Is there a reason that privately looking at the screen is offensive while privately looking at a book is not?
      - Acrobatic_Road 7mo ago
        It's a more social activity in a world that is increasingly isolated. A book is a nice conversation starter. I'm not going to come up to you and ask about what's on your little screen. Even if you're just reading an e-book the phone contributes to the perceived loneliness of those around you. If you really want to read a book in peace, try a library.
        tenacious_tuna 7mo ago
        > Even if you're just reading an e-book the phone contributes to the perceived loneliness of those around you. This is a wild projection of your own experience onto someone else's actions. > If you really want to read a book in peace, try a library. I've quite enjoyed the times I've taken a book to a restaurant and read over a meal. I do not appreciate you, or people like you, dictating how I ought to act in public in a way that doesn't affect anyone else in the slightest. I don't want to start conversations when I'm alone at a table with my book. The fact that you find it somehow less social for me to be on my phone instead of reading a book when I am minding my own business at my own table seems like a tremendous failure in your own boundaries and expectations of other people.
        Acrobatic_Road 7mo ago
        >This is a wild projection of your own experience onto someone else's actions. I asked a friend who doesn't use a smartphone about how it feels walking into a room full of people with phones and he told me the same thing. I have a smartphone but I don't take it out reflexively. I don't even consider myself a very social person or an extrovert, yet it always has to be ME to start a conversation in a room full of people because they would rather stare at a screen that say a hello. I'm going to talk to you whether you like it not. If you don't want to talk to people, then maybe don't put yourself in a social setting? Imagine entering a coffee shop and finding it dead silent. I would just go home and make some food. If you have a problem with me talking to you, go ahead tell me how much you don't appreciate it or whatever, I don't care.
  - bluebarbet 7mo ago
    >someone sitting by themselves reading a book on the e-reader app I was this person. Eventually I gave it up because I didn't want to be mistaken for just another screen-addled zombie with no impulse control miserably scrolling Whatsapp and Instagram. Perhaps I have too much self-awareness but I'd argue most people have too little.
    - fc417fc802 7mo ago
      > ... I didn't want to be mistaken for ... Who cares? They're strangers. If they want to make faulty assumptions and feel an unjustified smug sense of self superiority that's none of my business. At this point I read ~all books on my phone as a simple matter of practicality. I'd prefer my phone had an epaper screen and grayscale page centric apps (instead of scrolling) but that's just not how things are.
      - bluebarbet 7mo ago
        >on my phone as a simple matter of practicality Yes, I came to the same conclusion. IIRC I read Great Expectations on the thing! In my case scrollability was a bonus. Horses for courses.
    - bawolff 7mo ago
      > Eventually I gave it up because I didn't want to be mistaken for just another screen-addled zombie with no impulse control miserably scrolling Whatsapp and Instagram. So you gave it up not because you are worried about being a "phone addicted zombie" but because you are worried about being precieved and judged as such? Some would say changing your behaviour due to social insecurity is just another form of being a zombie.
      - bluebarbet 7mo ago
        Not sure it would make me a "zombie" exactly but I agree it's an oddly incoherent position to judge the behavior of others while also being concerned about their gaze. Much introspection has not yet pierced this mystery.
  - jmye 7mo ago
    > Do you commonly carry those around with you? I do when I’m going somewhere that doesn’t allow phones. How is this complicated or hard to understand?
- Mistletoe 7mo ago
  Or just do what we did before, sit and think. What they call "mindfulness" now and even meditation is what we used to call just being alive.
- hoherd 7mo ago
  My company recently gave us a day off for wellbeing. My initial plan was to spend the day in the forest, but it was cold and rainy. So instead, I did as you described. I took an old warn paperback that I had long ago picked up at a Little Free Library and have been struggling to finish, went to a family owned diner, got some comfort food, and sat for an hour and read my book (and did not use my phone). It was wonderful.

Phone free resturants if you're eating alone sounds kind of miserable. Sometimes i want to read something while i wait for my food to come out.

by bawolff 7mo ago

Phone free resturants if you're eating alone sounds kind of miserable. Sometimes i want to read something while i wait for my food to come out.

Aboutplants 7mo ago

Good news! If your alone there are other options!

bawolff 7mo ago
Can you be specific what you mean by that. Are you just saying if you are alone you should go to other resturants? I mean, sure that is true, but that logic would also apply to a resturant that spits in your food.

troymc 7mo ago

Maybe bring a (printed) book, brochure, flyer, or treatise on the nocturnal behaviours of silkworms?

bawolff 7mo ago
Do you commonly carry those around with you? I'm not mistaking a resturant for a library, i just want to kill time until my food comes out. Is there a reason why someone sitting by themselves reading a book on the e-reader app on their phone is more offensive than someone sitting by themselves reading a dead tree book?
- Acrobatic_Road 7mo ago
  It's not hard to bring a book with you. People did it before phones. And I don't know what you're doing when you're transfixed by your phone and I'm not going to peer over your screen to find out.
  - fc417fc802 7mo ago
    You dodged the question. You don't know what he's using his phone for. Fair enough. Is there a reason that privately looking at the screen is offensive while privately looking at a book is not?
    - Acrobatic_Road 7mo ago
      It's a more social activity in a world that is increasingly isolated. A book is a nice conversation starter. I'm not going to come up to you and ask about what's on your little screen. Even if you're just reading an e-book the phone contributes to the perceived loneliness of those around you. If you really want to read a book in peace, try a library.
      - tenacious_tuna 7mo ago
        > Even if you're just reading an e-book the phone contributes to the perceived loneliness of those around you. This is a wild projection of your own experience onto someone else's actions. > If you really want to read a book in peace, try a library. I've quite enjoyed the times I've taken a book to a restaurant and read over a meal. I do not appreciate you, or people like you, dictating how I ought to act in public in a way that doesn't affect anyone else in the slightest. I don't want to start conversations when I'm alone at a table with my book. The fact that you find it somehow less social for me to be on my phone instead of reading a book when I am minding my own business at my own table seems like a tremendous failure in your own boundaries and expectations of other people.
        Acrobatic_Road 7mo ago
        >This is a wild projection of your own experience onto someone else's actions. I asked a friend who doesn't use a smartphone about how it feels walking into a room full of people with phones and he told me the same thing. I have a smartphone but I don't take it out reflexively. I don't even consider myself a very social person or an extrovert, yet it always has to be ME to start a conversation in a room full of people because they would rather stare at a screen that say a hello. I'm going to talk to you whether you like it not. If you don't want to talk to people, then maybe don't put yourself in a social setting? Imagine entering a coffee shop and finding it dead silent. I would just go home and make some food. If you have a problem with me talking to you, go ahead tell me how much you don't appreciate it or whatever, I don't care.
- bluebarbet 7mo ago
  >someone sitting by themselves reading a book on the e-reader app I was this person. Eventually I gave it up because I didn't want to be mistaken for just another screen-addled zombie with no impulse control miserably scrolling Whatsapp and Instagram. Perhaps I have too much self-awareness but I'd argue most people have too little.
  - fc417fc802 7mo ago
    > ... I didn't want to be mistaken for ... Who cares? They're strangers. If they want to make faulty assumptions and feel an unjustified smug sense of self superiority that's none of my business. At this point I read ~all books on my phone as a simple matter of practicality. I'd prefer my phone had an epaper screen and grayscale page centric apps (instead of scrolling) but that's just not how things are.
    - bluebarbet 7mo ago
      >on my phone as a simple matter of practicality Yes, I came to the same conclusion. IIRC I read Great Expectations on the thing! In my case scrollability was a bonus. Horses for courses.
  - bawolff 7mo ago
    > Eventually I gave it up because I didn't want to be mistaken for just another screen-addled zombie with no impulse control miserably scrolling Whatsapp and Instagram. So you gave it up not because you are worried about being a "phone addicted zombie" but because you are worried about being precieved and judged as such? Some would say changing your behaviour due to social insecurity is just another form of being a zombie.
    - bluebarbet 7mo ago
      Not sure it would make me a "zombie" exactly but I agree it's an oddly incoherent position to judge the behavior of others while also being concerned about their gaze. Much introspection has not yet pierced this mystery.
- jmye 7mo ago
  > Do you commonly carry those around with you? I do when I’m going somewhere that doesn’t allow phones. How is this complicated or hard to understand?
Mistletoe 7mo ago
Or just do what we did before, sit and think. What they call "mindfulness" now and even meditation is what we used to call just being alive.
hoherd 7mo ago
My company recently gave us a day off for wellbeing. My initial plan was to spend the day in the forest, but it was cold and rainy. So instead, I did as you described. I took an old warn paperback that I had long ago picked up at a Little Free Library and have been struggling to finish, went to a family owned diner, got some comfort food, and sat for an hour and read my book (and did not use my phone). It was wonderful.