Look Who's Coming to Dinner?

Societal norms change at different paces. Some move rapidly like our immersion into the electronic age and others more slowly, such as the gradual and ongoing change in racial, gender and ethnic equality. A current cultural shift in the U.S. has taken place within a generation.

In many settings as recently as twenty years ago, the family dinner table held a level of sanctity far more hallowed and revered than telephone calls. During dinner, should the phone ring, no one bothered to answer. Evolution moved this along to the status of answering the phone only to request a return call after the shared meal. In time this gave way to answering machines picking up the call, while all the diners paused between words and bites to listen.

In modern day homes, and even more notably in restaurants, phones have established a place on table tops more prominent than napkins or silverware. During meals people openly write and receive e-mails and text messages as well as make and accept phone calls. Without question, this is a cultural shift, but to what end--productivity? Embedded in the action is the notion that whoever is at the other end of the call or electronic message holds more importance and value than the person(s) who share a table and a meal.

Use this blog to (A) note positive or negative implications to this paradigm shift or (B) suggest at least two rules for cell phone etiquette that should be followed in today’s society.