Going to a restaurant is meant to be a connective experience –– one in which you converse with family and friends and engage with the world around you. Thus, it’s a detriment to the entire experience if you are constantly checking your phone, and disengaging from what’s happening right in front of you.
It’s for this reason –– among others –– that it’s incredibly rude to be on your phone at a restaurant, and is something that should be avoided at all costs. Unless, of course, you were just discussing Sunset Boulevard and now you’re experiencing an irrepressible urge to google Gloria Swanson and read her entire biography –– in which case, go for it.
While being on your phone at a restaurant is objectively impolite, googling is okay because you’re providing something for the table. Whether it be relevant information about the actors in the movie everyone was just discussing or random facts about sea turtles, everyone will appreciate the knowledge you’ve provided them.
Seriously, get off your phone if you’re out grabbing dinner with friends! Oh, you just needed to google what wine pairs best with red meat? Well, that’s understandable. Even if it is extremely obvious that the answer is red wine and you should know that without googling it.
If you have your face in your phone when you’re out to eat, you’re blatantly ignoring the people you’re dining with, it seems like you’re uninterested in the conversation, and you might not hear the waiter when they ask for your order. However, if you happen to be googling where to grab drinks after dinner, then that’s totally fine, and you should definitely carry on.
Restaurants are for eating and drinking and chatting –– and subsequently googling more info about plant propagation after somebody brings it up in conversation because you were born with an insatiable curiosity and a deep need for instant gratification in the era of the smartphone.
Ultimately, if you want to be on your phone, do it later when you’re alone, not when you’re sitting at a restaurant, surrounded by loved ones. Unless you need to google the Byzantine Empire really quick –– because everyone knows that shit can’t wait.
