They say the lunch break is dying – but don’t give up your hour of freedom | Emma Brockes

Blame the gig economy or just sheer laziness, but fewer of us stopping for lunch in the working day can surely only be a bad thing

A long time ago, when I worked in an office, we used to take lunch quite seriously. This meant getting up from our desks, walking on our legs, and eating with another human being for the purposes of chat. Sometimes this even happened outside, or at a restaurant. It seems absurd now. Who has the time to hang out in the middle of the day or drop $20 on a sandwich when you could be sitting at your desk, staring at the internet, grazing leftovers from a plastic container from home? (Or, if you're already at home, let's be honest, taking a nap.)

If this killjoy reflex is a side-effect of age - for most people, time becomes less their own as they get older - it is also, it seems, a sign of the times. Two recent pieces of research in the US indicate that, over the past four or five years, Americans have been spending less money at lunchtime - 3.3% less, according to a payments app, Square - and also moving around less in the middle of the day.