Beer Glass Keeps People From Checking Smartphones When Socializing

When I’m at restaurants, I routinely look around to count all the people who are on their smartphones instead of engaging with the people who are sitting at the table. It’s a pet peeve of mine, and I can’t understand what could be so important on a phone that a person couldn’t put it down for an hour to have lunch or dinner. Why do we sometimes engage more with online people we’ve never met than our own loved ones? This creative beer glass was designed to change that.

I admit there was a time a few years ago when I was so addicted to Twitter that I would sneak into the bathroom at a restaurant to check my tweets. I’ve since curbed my social media habit a bit, and now it wouldn’t be a big deal if I left my iPhone at home. It took me a long time to get to that place though.

If you need a little nudge to help you reconnect with the offline world full of your friends and family, this beer glass can help. It’s quite ingenious really. The beer glass itself won’t sit on the table without setting it on a smartphone. That way, it basically forces you to put your smartphone down on the table.

It turns out, this is just a creative little joke by ad agency Fischer & Friends. It’s not a real beer glass. The sad thing is, I bet if it was a real beer glass, some people still wouldn’t put their smartphones down. Instead, they would just find something else to set the glass on. Watch the video and it will all make sense. It’s a great idea though. I have to give this ad agency props for addressing such an annoying problem!