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Pubs Banning Phones

By: David Werdiger
Uncategorized
Jan 8
1 min read

Great news: pubs & bars are banning phones and people love it

From WAPO

 

Pubs & bars are important social institutions.

While some people go to drink alone, most go to socialise and meet others.

Alcohol and food are social lubricants

They give you something to do in between the things we say

Eating together reinforces social bonds, and transmits cultural values

We do these at home as families, when visiting others, and in restaurants, pubs and bars.

Now, what do phones do to those interactions?

They distract us.

We’re out with someone, but …

Well, if our phone is there – either on the table or even in our pocket, then billions of others all over the world is just a click or buzz away!

If food & alcohol are social lubricants, then mobile phones are social friction.

They prevent us from being present and fully enjoying the company of others.

With that in mind …

Should we have more “phone free zones”?

What other places should be phone free?

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A friend who observes the Sabbath said something to me recently that hasn't left my head:

"A day without the phone is better than a holiday with it."

No notifications. No scrolling. No half-presence while your mind is somewhere else. Just one day, fully here.

We spend so much

The biggest mistake in succession planning?

Assuming the baton can be handed off when the time comes.

Great transitions happen long before the handoff.

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