Sign of the Times?

[foodnfoto]

I found this article recently and wondered what all of you thought.
TV at the Table?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1101/p09s02-coop.html

[Mezzaluna]

Abominable! Eating together is one of the most essentially human acts. This is a terrible testament to marketing's power: that people are so hooked on marketing they can't leave its influence even for a meal. Well, never mind the advertising on the tables in dinner houses like TGI Friday's and Chili's.

I could see why chains would want to put TVs on the tables. People tend to eat mindlessly when the TV is on and to eat more than they might if eating just in the company of others or in silence. They might linger at the table, ordering more food. This would definitely be a plus for the company.

Marketing people are also putting TVs in shopping carts so parents don't have to parent as they shop and kids can get even more intense cases of the "gimmes" as they browse the aisles. (You know: "Gimme that, Mom!")

Bah, humbug!

[chrose]

Maybe you can even "buy" your own table at the restaurant and then you can get cable there too... That's pretty sad. Next thing you know the guy at the table next to you will have his shoes and socks off and be picking his toes while watching reruns of Saved by the bell...........

[deltadoc]

All this reminds me of the movie "Dawn of the Dead". Paraphrased as best from memory as I can: "Why do the zombies still hang out at the mall?" Answer: "Because there is some sort of residual remembrance that this was a major place of importance in their lives".

The scene involving the bank of phone booths in the mall, each phone booth having a "trapped" zombie who couldn't figure out how the door opens still makes me laugh! Picture in your mind zombies forever revolving around in endless circles within the claustrophobically defined space of a phone booth!



doc