Smartphones have revolutionised the way we interact with each other, but not without a cost: all that time spent looking at our phones means we’re failing to communicate properly in the real world. And now one Galway publican wants to change that.

Gary Kilcar, the landlord of Whiskey's in Loughrea, has found a novel way of keeping his punters from posting on Facebook and Twitter – he’s offering them a free drink if they can keep their hands off their phones for half an hour.

After seeing a group of his patrons spend their night in his pub on their phones, Mr Kilcar felt they’d really missed the point of going for a drink in their local. Posting, somewhat ironically, on Facebook, Whiskey’s revealed that it will do its best to snap people back from social media, and get them chatting to each other instead.

You can read the post below: 

Whether or not Whiskey's will be wetting the whistles of happily socialising drinkers - whose battery life will thank them for it later - remains to be seen. But given the popularity of the post after just 19 hours, it certainly looks like there are many punters willing to take up the challenge.

So what do you think? Is it ever acceptable to start tapping on a screen when others are trying to enjoy your company?

If you cannot see the poll, please click here.

(H/T: Joe.ie)