I’ve had this argument a thousand times. I go to dinner with my wife and some of our friends. I spend the whole time on Twitter/Facebook/Path/Social Media flavour of the month. We leave the restuarant. The car journey home is spent arguing about how I spend too much time on my phone, how I ignore people. This is my life.
Until now! This intriguing phone game, called “Don’t Be A Di*k During Meals With Friends” encourages people to put the phone down and talk to one another, or face the consequences — paying the entire bill!
Technically this is not a video game, it’s just a regular game, but I’d love to see a smart developer create some sort of wi-fi/bluetooth driven app that augments the experience.
I’ll let one of the inventors of the game, first outlined in this Tumblr, explain.
Introducing our new game called:
“Don’t Be A Di*k During Meals With Friends.”
The first person to crack and look at their phone picks up the check.
Our (initial) purpose of the game was to get everyone off the phones free from twitter/fb/texting and to encourage conversations.
Rules:
1) The game starts after everyone has ordered.
2) Everybody places their phone on the table face down.
3) The first person to flip over their phone loses the game.
4) Loser of the game pays for the bill.
5) If the bill comes before anyone has flipped over their phone everybody is declared a winner and pays for their own meal.
Variations/house rules:
-Starting the game after everyone is seated.
-In the rare event that multiple people flip their phones simultaneously, the bill is split between said players.
– Feel free to invoke penalties/strikes systems.
Notes:
– No touching or messing with anybody else’s phones.
– I realize I should perhaps think of a different name for this awesome game. Because I don’t mean to imply that everyone who checks their phone during meals is a di*k.
– I recommend not being such a stickler or hardass on people about the rules and even initiation of the game. Basic premise is to just get people open to the idea of staying active and attentive to one another. But if someone has to take a call; they have to take a call =).
– Have fun! It’s really more of a fun concept in this new age high tech life of ours. Conversation is the spice of life.
I think it’s a great idea — one that families could even use at home with different punishments. Say, the first person to use their phone at the dinner table has to do all the cleaning up!
Thanks Gizmodo!
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