Chilli's puts a touch screen device on every table.

• You can pay for your meal with it, saving the server a valuable 5 minutes per table
• It shows you ads continuously that you can not turn off. Billboard on your table anyone?
• It also plays video, typicaly cartoons, in full volume no less just in case a phone or tablet is unavailable to be stuffed in your childs face
• This is in addition to the two TVs playing something or the other in constant view from any table
• And the pop music that is being piped in through the dining room speakers

A committee came up with this dining experience. I am sure of it.

When a committee works well, you get a Toyota Camry that lasts thirty years, five hundred thousand miles, all on the strength of timely oil changes. No personality, but the damned thing refuses to die.

When a committee works poorly, you find yourself with an attrocity of a touch screen device on your dinner table. With sound. And ads. Ditto on the personality. All with below-average food conjured up by the same committee.

In a world full of pocket internet devices, the best gift you can give someone is your attention.

Unless you are at a Chilli's.