Eat, drink & be merry! The connected dining table.
Over the course of the 20th century, and into the 21st Australians have found ourselves busier than ever. We are eating on the run, sometimes opt for the drive-thru, allow work commitments to get in the way of our family dinners. We spend less time sharing our meals with those we care about. And this can be more detrimental than you think. Not eating together can actually have negative effects on you psychologically, as well as physically.
Eating alone can be alienating. Our dinner table acts as a magnet for connection. Sharing a meal with those around us in a situation where people are happy to put aside their work and other commitments and take time out of their day. A shared meal is an excuse to catch up, talk, laugh and celebrate and even decompress from the stresses of day to day life, with those near and dear to us. If we eat alone, we enjoy not such benefits.
Furthermore, as some sort of magically delicious peacemaker, dining together can modify people’s perspectives. It can moderate people’s feelings of inequality and whilst dining, people are inclined to view those of different ethnicities, gender, and socio economic backgrounds as more equal than they generally would in other social situations (source: Eating Together, Alice Julier).
That's the magic of food for you. It nourishes our bodies, and can help nourish our souls. That's what we love about sharing a table full of food, to bring a connectedness and belonging with the added bonus of a good meal!