I've a habit of watching something while having food, be it lunch or dinner. I used to be able to watch some chess game, or a random clip from Would I Lie to You show, but I crave to discover new channels and feeds that are just as fun.
My favorites for a 20 minute video formats have been from Wendover Productions, some videos from Tom Scott, Veritasium or such. Sometimes, I might be in the mood for something less demanding in attention, and would just watch Impractical Jokers.
Watching an episode of some TV serial sounds longer than 30 mins and that's too much for me.
I'm interested to know what do you watch, if any.
Crumbs get into keyboards.
But before your generation, seriously, Dad would watch news during dinner, and it was coverage of the Vietnam war. Not to be a smartass, but I found the imagery and emotionally charged opinions expressed (half of them, anyway) to be completely unsuited to dinner.
So, I play music. Not just at dinnertime but anytime, classical music is good for the soul. If you have a nearby classical radio station, they will likely play lots of music that doesn't demand attention. But most stations stream and you can go from light to heavy music that demands and rewards close attention.
The big benefit of audio, any old time, is that you are free to roam around and actually get those irreducible chores (or work) done without lock-in.
If you abstain from TV for a while, encountering it is rather shocking in the way it pulls your brain into the screen and takes it over.
FWIW, I used to watch old movies and shows when I was married and we had cable. Dinner can be quite the experience when watching the old Japanese "Iron Chef" episodes, since food is the focus. For nostalgia buffs, the original series used great music by Hans Zimmer, from the movie "Backdraft" which added to the camp feeling.
https://m.youtube.com/@stevelehto/videos
They're just about the perfect length and interesting enough.
For example, if I'm eating breakfast alone in the morning, I'm usually feeling pretty energetic and have a bigger appetite for stimulation. I might watch a podcast interview.
Now if I'm eating lunch in the middle of my workday and I'm alone, I usually don't watch anything. My brain usually feels way too saturated and overstimulated so I might just eat and stare out the window.
After the workday is done and I'm eating dinner, it can be a toss-up haha. If I'm super exhausted, I won't watch anything, but if I'm feeling energetic, I might watch something similar to when I eat breakfast.
Provence https://youtu.be/HcKDXkwkO-E?is=ERjiyn0HOisl32Zr
What I imagine every Italian family is like https://youtu.be/VIioLuSU7q8?is=isilOdAL8z1GSDw6
But how do you read? On a device?