It happened again.  I was eating dinner over the weekend and happened to glance over at a family of six all on their cell phones switching between their forks, gaming and texting.  Two of the kids were not even teenagers and sadly Mom and Dad were not conversing with the kids. Very interesting that that many of us find it difficult  to disconnect even for a few minutes.  But now there are restaurants that are rewarding those who do.

A popular restaurant chain is participating in a challenge of sorts.  Last week, Chick-fil-A announced that 150 of its restaurants would be giving free ice cream cones to each person who put down their phones during dinner.

While we are not lucky enough to have a Chick-fil-A in the Greater Binghamton area, the nearest there are a bunch in Pennsylvania, including one in Scranton that is participating in the "cell phone coop."

A number of other locally owned restaurants have experimented with this across the country as well.  I'm not a aware of any in the Binghamton.  Could the tides of rude technology be turning?  We'll have to wait and see.

More From 98.1 The Hawk