Can We Only Pay Attention When We’re Naked?
A new restaurant has opened up in London where its patrons are encouraged to dine in the nude. The Bunyadi, the UK’s first naked dining experience, takes natural eating to a whole other level. The menu offers a variety of “naked” dishes, free of preservatives, with vegan or non vegan options also available. Not only are your meals kept in their most raw form, but the servers bringing them to you are as well! Sporting nothing but their own skin as they take you through the remarkable experience.
While customer nudity is optional, and there is a designated area for those who wish to enjoy their meals covered up, there is no place in restaurant for cellphones. The establishment strives to bring things back to a simpler time. Operating without the use of electricity, decorated in organic esthetic, and serving dinner by candlelight.
For obvious reasons customers are required to keep phones at the door, but as a byproduct of discretion comes the ability to pay attention. As everyone is forced to unplug, they are also forced to do things often avoided by staring into phone screens. Things like making eye contact, enjoying food before it gets cold from sitting as its picture gets taken. Engaging in conversations concerning alternative topics, beyond browsing what was on Instagram that day. Or “did you see Kylie Jenner’s Snapchat story? Here, let me show you…”
All of a sudden people are living in the moment, taking in the scenery of the environment around them. Thinking, instead of mass consuming useless information from social applications, mindlessly. And more importantly, enjoying each other’s company.
We have become so desensitized by how rude continuously being on our phones is, now that it has become common practice to take it with us everywhere. However, Bunyadi promotes social interaction in its most primal form, with another human being and not with a computer. When phones are forbidden, the experience can really be taken in, and memories are made, not just photographs.
It is hard to find someone who has been exempt from an experience compromised by technology. The meal was interrupted by a phone call; the show wasn’t seen because it was being filmed the entire time. Unique moments that go unappreciated as they are re-enacted one more time, and posted on social media. I once wasn’t able to enjoy my bubble tea, that I had been looking forward to all day, for about six minutes after purchasing it. All because my friend couldn’t get the right lighting, angle and shot of our drinks to upload to her Instagram account.
So is the only way to gain someone’s attention to take them to clothing-option attractions such as nude beaches, strip clubs and public pools? Places where cell phones are demanded to be kept within your bag, and where you most certainly will get a severe talking to should you wish not to comply.
While sitting bare with another person can be slightly nerve-racking, it seems to be the only way to stay present. Stripping off everything, including our electronics, just might be the key to bringing back face-to-face interaction again.
Does The Bunyadi have the right idea, should more restaurants be adopting a strict no cellphone policy? Perhaps that is the only way people will enjoy their food again, instead of trying to immortalize it. Maybe being in the buff is the answer to getting someone to talk about how their day was. Instead of playing a compilation of it through consecutive ten second stories.
Let’s get naked, let’s enjoy each other again!
This article was written by Tanya Sanca, a writer for dusk magazine.
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