Why oldies look at their smartphone rather than talk when in restuarants

I made a rare foray into reading the New Statesman magazine and was amazed to find a great article (Eating out loud)  about the way restaurants ignore the problems created by high background noise  - especially for older people.

Some lovely quotes - 'Modern restaurants are designed with looks rather than comfort in mind"

'Acoustics is an afterthought - architects often don't take it into account when designing a space'

There is lots of interesting research and observations - well worth reading.

Marketers should realise that high levels of background noise degrades the quality of multiple customer touchpoints.  That is sort of important to know?

I wonder how many marketers ever bother to measure noise levels in the products they are responsible for marketing? Less than 1% would be my guess. Want to learn more about the issue? There is lots and lots about the subject in our book Marketing to the Ageing Consumer. Dick Stroud