--- title: An Anti-Smartphone Beer Glass Prevents Phone Addiction at the Bar description: This beer glass can't be used without putting a smartphone underneath it. It's another example of anti-social design against tech addiction. canonical: https://time.com/40292/you-cant-drink-this-beer-if-youre-using-your-phone/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-28T18:41:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:15.680Z og:title: You Can’t Drink This Beer if You’re Using Your Phone og:description: Designed to cure the anti-social og:url: https://time.com/40292/you-cant-drink-this-beer-if-youre-using-your-phone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd25d1b82013ec1af/69868796d0b6f214a530375a/beerglass_time.jpg?branch=production&width=1071&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1071 og:image:height: 602 og:image:alt: beerglass_time og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Can’t Drink This Beer if You’re Using Your Phone twitter:description: Designed to cure the anti-social twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd25d1b82013ec1af/69868796d0b6f214a530375a/beerglass_time.jpg?branch=production&width=1071&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # You Can’t Drink This Beer if You’re Using Your Phone > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 28, 2014 6:41 PM UTC  Mauricio Perussi by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 28, 2014 6:41 PM UTC Now that cell phones have shrunk and we’re contemplating wearing our computers on our faces instead of in our pockets, smart design is more about stopping us from being online then letting us check Twitter more often. Call it anti-social design: devices like this beer glass are devoted to preventing a Tinder session at the bar. The [Offline Glass](http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/26/294329011/how-a-frosty-one-can-stop-you-from-checking-your-smartphone?utm%5Fmedium=facebook&utm%5Fsource=npr&utm%5Fcampaign=nprnews&utm%5Fcontent=03262014), designed by the Fischer & Friends ad agency in Brazil, is a normal beer glass with a notch cut out of the bottom exactly the size of an iPhone. The beer has to balance on your phone, otherwise it’ll tip over—so either leave your phone on the table, or double-fist smartphone and glass (not the Google kind). The beer glass is part of a larger trend of anti-social design that includes the [OFF Pocket](https://offpocket.com/), artist Adam Harvey’s smartphone case that blocks all signals being sent to or from your phone. With its metal-plated fabric, the case acts like a faraday cage, bouncing radio waves away from the device. You can’t check your text messages—you won’t even get them until you remove your phone. There’s also the traditional game of [Phone Stack](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Phone%20Stack). When out a bar or restaurant, have everyone pile their smartphones in the middle of the table. The first person to give in to their ceaseless social media addiction and grab their phone has to foot the bill for the rest of the group. Watch out for signs of technology withdrawal: squirming in seats, nervous foot-tapping, and eyes darting around looking for any and all screens. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/40292/you-cant-drink-this-beer-if-youre-using-your-phone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/40292/you-cant-drink-this-beer-if-youre-using-your-phone/"},"headline":"You Can’t Drink This Beer if You’re Using Your Phone","datePublished":"2014-03-28T18:41:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:15.680Z","description":"Designed to cure the anti-social","url":"https://time.com/40292/you-cant-drink-this-beer-if-youre-using-your-phone/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd25d1b82013ec1af/69868796d0b6f214a530375a/beerglass_time.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd25d1b82013ec1af/69868796d0b6f214a530375a/beerglass_time.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"beerglass_time","caption":"","creditText":"Mauricio Perussi","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/40292/you-cant-drink-this-beer-if-youre-using-your-phone/","name":"You Can’t Drink This Beer if You’re Using Your Phone"}}]}] ```