Dave Morin

When I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of time on my Mac computer after school and through the night. I would generally do whatever fit my fancy on any given day. But more often than not it meant programming, hanging in IRC, or exploring what would become the Internet.

My parents would inevitably yell down to my room, “time for dinner!” To which I would respond, “ok, just a minute!” I would then continue doing whatever I was doing on the computer until my parents would inevitably get pretty mad that I hadn’t come to eat dinner yet. I think most of my generation probably knows exactly what I’m talking about

This was, and probably still is, pretty annoying for parents worldwide.

Last night I met up with some new friends in Geneva, and we were having a conversation about life, family, and technology. At one point we started talking about the iPhone and what a great new innovation it is. One of the guys mentioned that the best new thing about the iPhone is how it ha changed his kids behavior around dinnertime.

Now, when he says “time for dinner!”, his kids come running, iPhone in hand, right to the dinner table.

Now, the iPhone is an incredible new platform that we are all excited about for various reasons. But getting more kids to the dinner table again? That sounds like social progress to me.

Frankfurt, Germany