IKEA Is Selling a Placemat with a Pocket for Your Phone

We’re having a hard time deciding whether this design is brilliant or just plain depressing. These new placemats come courtesy of IKEA and are part of their upcoming SITTNING collection, a limited edition series made up of 40 pieces focused in on “the joys of sharing a meal with those you love.” The new mats—which will reportedly be called “Logged Out”—will feature a convenient little pouch for you to tuck your smartphone away so you can finally enjoy a meal with your friends without checking Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, email…

The mats aren’t exactly foolproof; they use a loose weave fabric (which also explains their $2 price tag) and you can still see your phone light up when it’s face up in the pocket—meaning you’re still likely to be distracted and will probably get antsy on top of that trying to figure out who just texted you. There’s also the risk of spilling food or drink and having it seep through to your phone.

But even though the quality is pretty sub-par, if we chalk this design up to manners, the mats are a great way to get folks to be more cognizant of the very annoying and rude habit of pulling out a phone when there’s a live human being right in front of them. If Emily Post were living today, we can see her scooping up a set.

You can shop the new collection this September.

[Via Mashable]

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