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Let's Stop Using Cell Phones During Movies!

by Peter Martin Oct 18th 2009 // 5:02PM

Filed under: Exhibition

Let's Stop Texting During Movies!Hurray! At least one smaller movie theater chain (AmStar Cinemas / Grand Theatres nationwide) has banned cell phone usage and other theaters are considering it (Burlington, North Carolina). Maybe you know of others. What can we do to get all exhibitors to do likewise?

Perhaps cell phone / text message movie interrupters need to imagine the following scenario: You're watching a movie at home, you're in the dark all by yourself, you're in the narrative groove, you're caught up with the characters -- and then someone taps you on the shoulder and shines a flashlight in your face. When you motion to the stranger in your house to get the light out of your face, the stranger shrugs his shoulders as if to say, "What? I'm not doing anything wrong."

That's the rough equivalent. Complete strangers routinely and rudely disturb others by pulling out their cell phones, lighting up their equipment, and checking that all-important message. Then they take another few moments to type a response. Sometimes it's a phone call, and the stranger answers it right at their seat. Sometimes they proceed to check other messages, or keep the phone out to wait for a response to their text. Occasionally they think they're being "polite" by angling the phone away from others, which never entirely hides the bright, shining light. Texters know no age boundaries -- I've seen everyone from teens to well-dressed professionals to folks old enough to be my grandparents lighting up and talking or texting away. I've experienced it at public screenings, press screenings, and film festivals. Why do they do it? What can the rest of us do about it?



As to the why, I can understand why parents or physicians might be anxious to check their phone immediately. If it's a life or death situation, yes, I think we can cut those people some slack. Everyone else -- no way. Even if you feel it's an important, though not life-threatening call or text, it's only important to you, not to your fellow moviegoers.

Cell Phone Use During MoviesIt's so simple: if you're expecting a call that's important to you, and your phone vibrates during a movie, all you have to do is excuse yourself, leave the auditorium, and deal with it. Talk as loud as you want, text all you want, check your messages all you want -- outside the auditorium. "But I don't want to miss the movie!" some might wail. That's too bad; you're the one that has the "important" call or text.

As to the what, as in what can we do about it, I was all set to call for a ban on texting during movies. But that would involve laws and legal bodies and, really, that's not going to happen. We can talk about the coarsening of the public culture and the general increase in rude, inconsiderate behavior, and we can let off some steam, but that won't stop it. We can glare and stare, or ask politely, and texters will keep texting. It's in their insecure nature to think primarily of themselves, after all. From all apparent evidence, they'd rather text friends and bother strangers than run the risk of ignoring their buddies for the length of a movie. Really, they deserve more pity than scorn.

I avoid confrontations whenever I can, especially with strangers. That's my nature, which is certainly open to criticism. Once, during a movie in an auditorium that was mostly empty, a couple in the row behind me conversed with each other during the movie, not whispering or sharing an occasional aside, but a conversation at near-full voice. Slowly building up anger, I eventually decided to get up and sit next to them. I didn't say anything, I just sat next to the woman. Both she and the man she was with stopped talking and looked over at me. I stared straight ahead. Within a few minutes they got up and left the theater.

With texters, I've thought about snapping open my phone and pointing it at the offender a few minutes after he or she finishes their texting session. I know that will disturb still others, though, and I haven't worked up the nerve to do it yet. I have glared and stared and asked politely, and occasionally that works.

What have you done to deal with the problem? How can we encourage more exhibitors to ban cell phone usage?

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Tags: cell phones at movies, CellPhonesAtMovies, featured, texting at movies, texting during movies, TextingAtMovies, TextingDuringMovies

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