It’s becoming increasingly difficult to disconnect. The smartphone we all carry will usually find a signal, be it 3G, 4G, or WiFi meaning you’re always connected and able to receive messages, chat, or surf the web in your own insular bubble. Getting away from that is tough and most of us wouldn’t want to anyway, however, one British bar is forcing the disconnect on its patrons.
The Gin Tub cocktail bar in Hove is owned by Steve Tyler and he dislikes what the smartphone has done to social gatherings. So he decided to do something about it in his own bar by installing a Faraday cage that blocks all phone signals. The Gin Tub is a dead zone.
A Faraday cage is basically a mesh of conductive materials that blocks electric signals passing through it. Tyler has built his mesh into the walls of the Gin Tub so you can’t see it and it doesn’t ruin the look of the bar. It’s also legal unlike the phone jammers you can buy, so nobody will be able to take action against him for installing it. Instead they can just choose to drink elsewhere.
Tyler’s aim is not to upset anyone, though, it’s to get them talking and enjoying the experience of going out instead. The older readers among you may remember when going out was done without an always-connected device in your pocket. We're fast approaching an age where the youngest legal drinkers have always had a phone to pull out of their pocket, so socializing without it is an unknown.
The Gin Tub experiment will be watched closely by other drinking establishments to see how well it works. I’m also hoping movie theaters take note and carry out the same experiment. If they do, I may start visiting them regularly again.