Facebooker Dave Morin recollects a story so so very familiar to me (sorry Mom! :P ), but adds an interesting observation:

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.