Shared Dining Seating: Why 90% of Gen Z Enjoy This Trend
Name: Communal seating arrangements.
Look: Lengthy, awkward and back in fashion.
The Return of Communal Eating? Not Again. The Sole Appropriate Location for Long Benches is the Cafeteria
Who would voluntarily eat with strangers as an adult with free will? The younger generation, apparently. According to data from the restaurant reservations company Resy, "90% of gen Z diners say they enjoy shared seating, compared with just six in ten of older generations".
I’ve Never Felt More Out of Touch. Before You Start Harrumphing About the Youth of Today
Communal eating in nationalistic eateries was a big thing during the second world war, in fact – there were about two thousand five hundred of them, backed by Winston Churchill.
It Was Logical When Food Was Scarce, But Why Do It Now?
It’s an alien concept for you, I know, but shared dining can be enjoyable! As Pablo Rivero notes: "They naturally turn dinner into a shared experience," and "The excitement lies in not knowing your neighbor!"
The “Fun” of Having Dinner Interrupted by Someone Explaining Loudly That Their Therapist Says They’re “a Highly Sensitive Empath”
Or being squeezed next to a fitness enthusiast eating chicken to fuel his "workout routines"? Or a social media user filming you accidentally of their reel while eating a salad? Consider this: young adults – the most online generation, who came of age during the pandemic, and many of whom entered an almost exclusively digital workplace – love a structured communal activity. This same desire driving the popularity of young people’s running clubs, hiking outings and crafting nights: they’re seeking real-world interactions.
I Prefer Dining in a Solo Ramen Stall They Have in Tokyo.
This may not appeal to you, but lots of young people are lonely (Nearly half of them, as per an Oxfam survey published in June). A recent American study , one-third of men aged between 18 to 23 reported they had no contact outside their household in the previous seven days. Isn't it positive they’re getting out and breaking bread with strangers?
Perhaps. Studies Indicate Those Dining in Groups Report Greater Happiness
Conversing with new people is good for us, too: it enhances our feeling of community. Additionally the Resy data points out another advantage: one in seven survey respondents said they’d landed a date at a communal dining experience. Given gen Z have gone off the apps, this offers a chance for a unplanned "meat-cute".
I Hate That Pun Almost as Much as I Hate Communal Tables.
Mission accomplished.
Do say: "Young adults believe shared meals are a total success."
Inappropriate remark: "It’s all fun and games until someone drops a katsu prawn on your Y2K baggy jeans."
