In a commencement address to La Salle University, Peter J. Dougherty culled the most precious piece of wisdom from his 53 years of professional expertise to impart to graduating students. Just four words: meet often for lunch. In fact, let’s make it Lunch, a long, slow, enjoyable time at a sit-down restaurant. Getting together with folks during the work day will yield myriad benefits associated with sustained social engagement, such as joy, creativity, connection, and purpose.
Eat lunch together? That’s it? An audience may expect more from a commencement speaker of high professional esteem and accomplishment, so Dougherty elevated his advice by declaring it “Dougherty’s Unified Field Theory of Lunch.”
No new theory should go untested. Game on, Dr. Dougherty!
My Cultural Anthropology class agreed to test Dougherty’s Unified Field Theory of Lunch by conducting fieldwork and collecting empirical data. Methodology involved two waves: first, eat lunch with real people in a real-world setting; second, eat lunch alone while connected online. As participant-observation requires, they took notes on their own experience as they fully participated, and they also documented what they observed in their social environments.
Lunch in the Real World
“I ate with students from my department. Some people ate salad, and others ate macaroni and cheese or tacos. We laughed, asked questions, and shared advising ideas from our professors. We were physically close to each other so we could have direct eye contact and body language. Interacting with others in this way satisfies our desire to love and be loved by the people right in front of us!”
In describing their real-world lunches, students used certain verbs repeatedly: talking, spending time, focusing on conversation, and making eye contact. They used all of their senses: smelling aromas, hearing background noise, seeing people walking by, touching spoons and tacos and friends. They noticed themselves noticing other people’s faces, students at other tables, and the overall scene in the cafeteria.
Lunch Online
“I sat in Starbucks alone and took out my computer. I ordered a tomato and mozzarella on focaccia bread sandwich through the Starbucks app. While I ate, I had three screens in front of me with three different apps open: Instagram, news, and emails. I didn’t even notice what I was eating because my mind was pre-consumed.”
Students used different verbs to describe eating lunch alone with their phones: watching, multitasking, texting, rushing, and relaxing. Instead of using multiple senses, they focused on seeing the screen and listening to video or to a person on facetime, so focused that they sometimes didn’t notice their surroundings or even their food. “I was so focused on a video that I didn’t even realize I had already finished my grilled cheese until I looked down and saw nothing on my plate.” One person had lunch with a good friend on Facetime, but both of them kept looking away from the screen to check texts, even while the other person was talking.
Lunch in Two Worlds
Dougherty’s theory posits four points about the value of lunch: it’s familiar; it’s tangible; it’s collegial; it takes time.
Empirical data supports these points. Student researchers found that lunch with real friends in the real world yields certain advantages:
*Being with friends in the real world is “genuine.” One student wrote, “conversations, laughter, and community create a connection that isn’t possible digitally.”
*Good and honest conversation is precious. “When we talk in person we can show the care and meaning of the conversation even if it just about how good a sandwich tastes.”
*Slow is good. “When I am with someone in person, I tend to go slower and have a more drawn-our goodbye…you have to carve out time to spend with people.”
Dougherty’s theory does not consider the benefits of eating lunch alone, quickly and with a phone on. Advantages here include:
*More choice, less constraint. You can eat with someone no matter where they are, or you could get caught up on videos and podcasts. The online world is free, easy, and convenient.
*More vulnerability. While most students reported more authenticity and honesty in the real world, one described the real world as burdensome, where intentionality in appearance, facial gestures, and body language was exhausting. In contrast, “the digital environment provided a space where could come more vulnerable as we were.”
*Fast is also good. Students described lunch online as providing “a space to be alone, to relax” in contrast to time with others that can be draining or effortful.
This research challenges Dougherty’s Unified Theory, which claims that lunch together supports enjoyment of others, exchanges of ideas, and the joy of work becoming play. This may be true, but it assumes that people are in pursuit of these goods. Eating alone and online helps people reach different goals, such as enjoying the absence of other people, reducing the pressure of social exchanges, and simply turning work off. A fully unified theory of lunch will need to expand to include the many and sometimes contradictory goals that people pursue during their work hours.
This study certainly had limitations. First off, there was no hypothesis, no sample, no literature review, and no particular process for data analysis. Some might argue that this isn’t research at all, but in my mind, if Dougherty can proclaim his thoughts to be a “unified field theory of lunch,” then my class assignment can be recorded in the annals of social science as an “Empirical Examination,” with “Paris” listed as Principal Investigator.
If our research could be extended, the most important area to consider would be the cost of lunch. I recently enjoyed a $12 lunch at a local restaurant, but that’s not the cost I mean. Many people may consider a long lunch to be too time-costly, consuming up to two hours of an eight-hour work day that, without that lunch, could have been six. Others may see lunch as an energy cost, having to navigate social proprieties and human interactions. A future study could count the perceived costs of lunch – money, time, and energy – and set it against the benefits – friendship, joy, creativity, morale.
A colleague recently emailed me and said, “Lunch next week?” I wrote back, “It’s advising season, and then Thanksgiving…let’s try early December.” I found an available sixty minutes (maybe we’ll pare it down to forty-five) three weeks from now. I cringed as I wrote it, because truth be told, I was also guarding my time so I could write this essay about the importance of lunch.
Despite the realities of pressured time, and despite the enticements of eating alone and online, Dougherty’s vision of a renewed society appeals to us: may we soon “give up our infatuation with computer screens and return to the sidewalks and street corners …as citizens, neighbors, and friends to revive personal connection…”
My research-not-really-research concludes with a hearty affirmation of the last two words of Dougherty’s commencement address: Bon appetit!
