--- description: The Swedish furniture chain wants you to unplug title: Allow IKEA to Help You Finally Put Your Phone Away During Dinner image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # IKEA Really Wants You to Put Your Phone Away and Enjoy Your Life by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 1, 2016 9:10 PM CUT by [Samantha Grossman](/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 1, 2016 9:10 PM CUT Smartphones are a _huge_ part of most of our lives. We [check them](http://time.com/4147614/smartphone-usage-us-2015/ "undefined") dozens of times a day, we [sleep with them](http://time.com/3940023/sleep-banks-smartphones/ "undefined"), we even let our [very young children](http://time.com/3834978/babies-use-devices/ "undefined") use them. Many of us also use our smartphones when we’re out to dinner with friends and family instead of, you know, engaging in human interaction. With that in mind, IKEA Taiwan has unveiled an invention to get us all to unplug during mealtime. It’s a special [hot pot ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot%5Fpot "undefined")table that’s powered by smartphones—so it requires everyone at the table to surrender their devices and place them below the pot. If someone removes his phone, the heat drops and the food will not get cooked properly. As you’ll see in the video, it doesn’t work _super_ well, because diners can still see their phones and are clearly stressed out about not being able to touch them. Eventually, though, they seem to loosen up and just talk to each other. Either way, we really can’t imagine trying to[ assemble](http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Video/%5F%5FNEW/nn%5F09bwi%5Fikea%5F131112.jpg "undefined") this table ourselves. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4203023/ikea-taiwan-hot-pot-smart-phone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4203023/ikea-taiwan-hot-pot-smart-phone/"},"headline":"IKEA Really Wants You to Put Your Phone Away and Enjoy Your Life","datePublished":"2016-02-01T21:10:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:33.494Z","description":"With its new smartphone-powered hot pot table","url":"https://time.com/4203023/ikea-taiwan-hot-pot-smart-phone/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Technology"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"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/4203023/ikea-taiwan-hot-pot-smart-phone/","name":"IKEA Really Wants You to Put Your Phone Away and Enjoy Your Life"}}]}] ```