Bars and clubs restrict mobile phone use to encourage real-life connection
“Sometimes at a table of four, a couple, or even two couples, they’re all talking on their phones and they’re not actually talking,” she said. “Even though they’re in the restaurant, they’re somewhere else.”
At Sanctum, a private members’ club that opened on the ground floor of the Pullman Hotel in September, members are asked not to take photos with their cell phones and “phone booths” are provided so people can talk on their cell phones so as not to disturb other members.
At Le Splendide, red heart stickers are placed on customers’ phone cameras. Credit: EddieJim
Phones are completely banned at Collingwood bathhouse Sense of Self, which owner Freya Berwick said was an integral part of the space, an antidote to people’s increasingly busy and “hyper-connected yet disconnected lives”.
“It was difficult to implement in the beginning, especially at the opening, because everyone wanted to take pictures,” he said. “Our tendency to experience something we are excited about is to immediately pull out our phones and capture it.”
But Berwick said strict enforcement of the phone ban made the bathhouse a calmer, more relaxing place for everyone.
“When people are on the phone, it disrupts their own experience and their ability to get into their bodies and just be there,” she said.
Le Splendide customers are talking more now that they are keeping their phones off. Credit: EddieJim
The reaction against phones is also reflected in nightlife; Clubs around the world are trying to solve the problem of dance floors full of people taking selfies or filming instead of dancing.
Berlin’s Berghain, New York’s House of Yes and Ibiza’s Hi have implemented a version of the “no phones” rule that bans club members from filming and taking photos inside.
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Brad Marshall, psychologist and director of the Internet Addiction Clinic, said restricting or banning phone use was a practical way for venues to embrace the human experience.
“Oxytocin, the feel-good chemical and the love and bonding chemical, can only be released in really large doses through face-to-face social interaction, not online,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing more and more of is some new ways that live venues are trying to combat this.”
Marshall said this could be a growing trend in food and dining.
“Are you at a bar or are you at a restaurant to be there and connect with friends?” he asked. “Or are you there just to walk into that restaurant and see all your friends just on their phones?”
