DINNER TIME RECLAIMED FOR AUSSIE FAMILIES WITH THE DOLMIO® PEPPER HACKER
Aussies have called for less Facebook and more face time. Two thirds of Australians have reported family dysfunction from over use of technology, especially at the dining table. Dolmio®, today has announced its solution to battle this issue: the Dolmio® Pepper Hacker.
Responding to research[1] investigating Australians’ dependence on technology, which found that two thirds of Aussies households report arguments from over use of technology at dinner, and four out of five (78%) saying it should be banned at the table, Dolmio® is seeking to help more families connect at dinner time with the Dolmio® Pepper Hacker.
Aside from seasoning your spaghetti, the Dolmio® Pepper Hacker has another very unique secret feature. With one twist the seemingly normal pepper grinder will power down TVs, shut off Wi-Fi and mobile apps, taking away the dinner time distractions.
To demonstrate how families connect when they disconnect, Dolmio® provided frustrated Aussie mums with a Pepper Hacker to help them reclaim dinner time and stop technology commandeering their family time. Dolmio® secretly filmed the reactions of the technology obsessed families once their tech was switched off and dinner was served:
The average Australian household owns approximately 12 devices/gadgets meaning family mealtimes are becoming ever more difficult to navigate without being hijacked by our obsession with technology.
Kids forgoing dinner and dessert in favour of technology
Over half of Aussie Dads reported that their kids have sometimes decided they would rather stay on their computer or phone than have dinner. Around a third of parents say that when their kids are at the dinner table they are distracted without their technology, and a shocking 36 per cent of parents say their kids will do anything they can to get away from the table as quickly as possible –even if it means missing dessert. What?!
Parents admit a dinnertime double standard
Whilst four out of five Aussie parents believe that technology should be banned from the dinner table, it seems that a significant proportion admit to having double standards for them and their kids, with a quarter admitting to a crafty phone-check during dinner time! For shame. What’s worse is 59 per cent of parents admit they sometimes give in and turn on the TV to keep the kids happy.
Richard Stear, Marketing Director at Mars Food Australia says “We believe that meals shared with family and friends are often distracted by the very technology that is supposed to bring us closer together, so we’ve created the Dolmio Pepper Hacker to help connect us with the people in front of us.”
“The Dolmio Pepper Hacker might not be available to every household yet but we believe that our experiment perfectly shows that once you disconnect from your technology at the dinner table you can really connect as a family.”
Penny Walsh from Sydney who took part in the Dolmio® Pepper Hacker experiment says, “Before using the Dolmio Pepper Hacker on my family, technology was a real problem in our household. I would often struggle to get the kids away from the TV and off their phones and tablets at the dinner table.”
“It really showed us as a family how enjoyable dinner can be when we all get together and interact with each other without technology getting in the way. We will now be making technology-free dinner times a more regular feature in our household.”
We at Glam love this idea. Hopefully The Dolmio Pepper Hacker is on our supermarket shelves soon, until then it appears we’ll just have to continue hiding the remote batteries.
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