Blog #2: Mikaela McLean

If any of you are like me, your smartphone is a part of your being. I have my phone within a 1 foot radius of myself just about all the time. Then I read about a game that goes by two names, both “The Phone Stacking Game” and “Don’t Be a Dick During Meals”. Basically the rules are when you’re out to dinner with friends or family, you place your phones face down on the table and stack them up. Once they’re on the table you can’t look at them and if you do then you have to pay for everyone's dinner, if not then everyone pays for their own. It’s a simple idea that has been getting a lot of buzz. The post, The Phone Stacking Game: Let’s Make This A Thing by techcrunch.com featured this new game and in turn received a number of comments, both positive and negative about the topic.

Most of the comments were split down the middle as to whether or not people thought this was a good idea. This sites comment section was synced through Facebook, so there was no anonymity to be found, as well as no pseudonyms. The site does feature a Top Commenter title that is placed beside names of popular posters.

The above comment was one of the most popular or "liked" posts, it remains fairly neutral on the actual topic of phone stacking being a positive or negative idea, but was one of the view comments that was meant to be fun and said in jest.

 These two comments above featured one of the more popular beliefs expressed in the comments of this article, that being people who use their phones when out with friends are simply put, just boring people. Many other comments also suggested this idea of having boring friends, while others suggested that people need to get rid of their phones altogether. There wasn't much opposition found within these comments, usually people who agreed with what was being said were the ones to reply back.

Alternatively, there were also those who loved the idea of the phone stacking game and as with the other comments, mostly those who agreed with what was being said by the commenter would reply back.

As for the argument of whether or not the phone stacking game is a good idea, the comments were split down the middle with some liking it and some not. There appeared to be a bit of an age difference in people who liked the idea and those who didn't. Evidently the younger the commenter the more they were inclined to like the idea. Though the site featured a Top Commenter icon beside the names of those commenting, it appeared as though everyone was a "Top Commenter", so I didn't find it an overly reliable feature. If anything, the Facebook system of "liking" a comment was the best way to figure out who the had the most supported idea.