2. Using cell phones during the movie
This is, oddly enough, not quite as overbearing an issue as it was a few years ago, when every teenager on the planet thought the best venue for sending text messages was the first few rows of a dark movie theatre. I do believe some people – though certainly not all – have finally gotten the message that using one’s bright smartphone screen in a darkened auditorium is, in fact, distracting and rude to other paying customers. Though that could just be because I typically attend press screenings where Hollywood studios have become so fed up with people using cell phones, for piracy or other reasons, that security teams are hired to confiscate electronic devices or kick those using phones out of the theatre. Sort of like a frustrated parent taking their child’s toy away when he or she makes too much noise with it, since the child apparently does not know any better.
In any case, audiences using phones during a movie is still a rampant issue, and one of the most maddening, obnoxious ones at that. When we sit down to watch a movie, we automatically suspend our disbelief, to at least a certain degree, so that we may accept the events portrayed on screen. Even for the most staunchly ‘realistic’ movies, the presence of simple cinematic traits like editing requires a certain acceptance from the audience. It is a unique stance we are accustomed to adopt whenever a film begins. And when someone in front of you whips out his or her cell phone, that stance is broken.
The phone’s glow doesn’t just break the carefully calculated lighting conditions of the theatre, but also forces us to remember that we are, in fact, sitting in the real world, observing staged events rather than being enveloped in real ones. For a moment, at least, the film is ruined, because the stance required to enjoy or analyze it is swept out from under our feet.
Make no mistake: Using your cell phone can ruin the experience for those around you, and it is absolutely not fair to screw over other paying customers simply because you want to send a measly text message.
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