Technology at the Table

Mealtimes are a cherished part of everyday life around the world. Often centered on family, friends, or special occasions, sharing meals is a practice embedded with traditions and values. However, as mobile phone adoption becomes increasingly pervasive, tensions emerge about how appropriate it is to use personal devices while sharing a meal with others. Furthermore, while personal devices have been designed to support awareness for the individual user (e.g., notifications), little is known about how to support shared awareness in acceptability in social settings such as meals. In order to understand attitudes about mobile phone use during shared mealtimes, we conducted an online survey with 1,163 English-speaking participants. We find that attitudes about mobile phone use at meals differ depending on the particular phone activity and on who at the meal is engaged in that activity, children versus adults. We also show that three major factors impact participants' attitudes: 1) their own mobile phone use; 2) their age; and 3) whether a child is present at the meal. We discuss the potential for incorporating social awareness features into mobile phone systems to ease tensions around conflicting mealtime behaviors and attitudes.