A restaurant happened to analyze surveillance tapes from 2004 and compared to 2014 to understand some productivity issues (read Restaurant Watches Old Surveillance And Shares Shocking Results On Craigslist). The results are clear: nowadays, mobile phone distraction significantly uses up our time.
Customers use time trying to connect to the wifi, taking picture of themselves and the food, which leads to much more time spent before placing the order and enjoying the food. Waiters’ time is also spent taking pictures of customers and helping them with their connection. And much more time is spent looking at stuff on the phone which adds delays in the entire process.
The issue here is not the impact on the restaurant’s productivity and turn-around (although that must be a huge concern to the restaurant owner because at the end of the day productivity is easily impacted by 20-30%), but this example shows dramatically how mobile phones use our precious time. And in the meantime we also kind of forget to connect with the people we have dinner with in the first place!
