It's Okay to be an iPad Kid

Multi-tasking can be fun, even worthwhile

It’s dinner time! And for my partner and me, that means enjoying our meal in front of the telly. Despite both of us being 23, we’re still iPad kids at heart — at least when it comes to our mealtime rituals. For whatever reason, dinner just doesn’t feel right without also having an episode of Bob’s Burgers or Gilmore Girls on.

But many have critiqued this practice. Allegedly, eating in front of the television distracts you, causing you to eat too quickly and too much. There is also a certain stereotype associated with telly-eating. Those who indulge in this practice also over-indulge in unhealthy foods and cannot maintain an interesting conversation to save their lives, forcing them to supplement their drab personalities with outside entertainment. At least, that’s how the story goes. 

While I am in no position to refute the many studies which tie this ritual of ours to bad eating habits, I can at least offer a defence of our particular situation against those naysayers who would paint us as boring and unhealthy. We both love to cook, so although we can sometimes be partial to treating ourselves to takeaway, we’re generally separated from the screen by a lovely bowl of something filling, home-cooked, and nutritious — say, a nice pancetta and courgette gnocchi — or a plate of beautifully cooked steak and asparagus. 

We’re also reasonably chatty, even when we watch TV — think Gogglebox or one of those awful reaction YouTubers, except hopefully a tad less annoying. That being said, we’ve known each other for a long time, spend almost every waking minute with each other, and so, are entitled to a moment where we can just turn off our brains entirely. After all, the measure of any good relationship is not only how well you’re able to fill the void but also how comfortable you are with just letting it be there when it doesn’t need to be filled. There’s not much better than watching something you enjoy with someone you enjoy while eating some food you enjoy. Plus, in between work, school, extracurriculars, and household errands, sometimes the only time you have to watch TV is also the time when you’re not doing anything other than eating dinner. Even this sacred time of ours is sometimes spent in the presence of others, or out at a restaurant, where bringing in the TV wouldn’t be appreciated. 

Now, do we eat too quickly or too much? I don’t personally think so, but it doesn’t really matter either. The most important thing is that we enjoy our food, and more generally, that we are enjoying ourselves. As much as we are both sceptical of ever-encroaching technology, of generative AI, of children, and, God forbid, of adults who cannot spend an hour without being glued to a screen, we also understand that not every ritual has to be the type of ritual that a dietician, a priest, and a hippie could all unanimously agree upon. We understand that, as (mostly) responsible adults, we get to set our own rules, and while those rules might be very different from the ones we eventually set for our kids, this gives us the time now to treat ourselves. 

That is the general lesson that I would like to impart. When it comes to your own personal life, you do not need to sanitise everything, to live as if your life were being planned by a lifestyle coach / health-guru with decades of experience, including a short stint at a monastery in Outer Mongolia. Believe me, those who spend their waking hours reading Atomic Habits or listening to this-or-that podcast on the quad are not necessarily an ideal you should strive towards. Half of them are probably on their way to having a soulless finance job or, worse, wishing they had one but being forced instead to peddle their own self-help tips to others on the internet.

Just don’t do heroin every day and try to live a decently fulfilling, authentic, and morally virtuous life, and you should be grand! 

Illustration from Wikimedia Commons