# Modern phone etiquette: When is the dinner hour?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-phone-etiquette-when-is-the-dinner-hour/802226>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 20, 2017, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-phone-etiquette-when-is-the-dinner-hour/802226 "2017-11-20T23:42:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-phone-etiquette-when-is-the-dinner-hour/802226/41 "2017-11-21T22:09:34Z")

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The best advice is to just ask what the preferences of the person you wish to communicate are. If I were a big phone person, talking on the phone during dinner time hours would be fine. But I’m not a phone person.

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**Author:** ![chaika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chaika/32/405_2.png) [@chaika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaika)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-phone-etiquette-when-is-the-dinner-hour/802226/42 "2017-11-21T23:11:09Z")

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I don’t really think about the dinner hour issue. People’s dining habits are all over the place so who knows when they are sitting down to eat. 6:00? 8:00? 9:30? No clue. Generally speaking, I wouldn’t call most friends after 9:00 p.m. or before about 10:00 a.m. (This seems to be a cultural thing to some degree. My Russian friends tend to place calls much later than my American or British friends.)

I am a bit surprised by the idea of sending a text to schedule a phone call. It would never occur to me to do that. So many people seem glued to their phones at all times, to the point of rudeness (IMO). But we’re not supposed to call them? To do that thing for which phones were invented? Huh. I guess I just assume that if someone doesn’t want to take a phone call, he/she can just ignore it.

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**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modern-phone-etiquette-when-is-the-dinner-hour/802226/43 "2017-11-21T23:12:15Z")

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I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. When the phone rings, I can sweep to answer or sweep to ignore. IF I sweep to ignore, I am given the chance to use pre-written message replies.  
" Enjoying dinner, I’ll return your call shortly " is what I’d go with.  
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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