I was going to just observe someone seems to be projecting.
As a guy who unexpectedly found himself dating at 52, I have no clue as to what you’re talking about. Literally has zero validity within my recent experiences.
Isn’t this the filmmaker’s problem? If the movie is good enough then people will sit and watch it. And you can’t expect a 50 year old to have the same level of respect for most movies as a 15 year old would, plus most movies are geared to less mature audiences anyway.
Have we been invaded by people from an alt-Earth who apparently take it as a moral code not to like films past the age of, I guess, 17?
Watching a good movie is fun, but I also have no desire to sit around in a coffeeshop and dissect what I just saw in a group setting, Lisa Simpson style.
Ugh. My older sister is like this. Drives me insane. Don’t talk to me about what you’re planning to do for vacation this year while we’re sitting in a theater watching a movie. And I get extra stressed knowing that’s also annoying those around us in the theater.
If I’m watching something I want to watch it! I don’t want to chitchat and I don’t want to fill you in on what you missed when you weren’t paying attention.
If you thought you’d like the film so much you could always invite them to see it when if first comes out at a movie theater. You could go really crazy and get some dinner and make a night of it.
The concept of “when it first comes out” means little or nothing to me. Some of my favorite films are films I had no conception of when they first came out. I might have been unaware of them, or uninterested at the time, or too young, or not born yet.
Same with books or music or paintings.
Movies are part of an art form, not merely a consumable with a sell-by date.
Sounds like my ex. Almost every day.
I don’t know what’s with the Straight Dopes obsession with pulling a Crowder and inventing strawmen so they can valiantly fight them. Every single one of my examples are of when people invited me over to specifically watch a movie, and then proceeded to just leave for large portions of it to do whatever. I’m not complaining about somebody nibbling on a pizza while they’re watching, I’m literally talking about somebody who invites me over for something and then they just completely ignore both me and the TV.
Not people I’m watching something with getting up and doing random things, but I can’t watch a movie in the shared parts of the house with out some one coming through the room and disrupting the experience. So I mostly only watch movies in my bedroom. It’s got a bigger TV anyway.
What’s weird about that? I do the same thing. It’s just background noise.
I noticed too.
No. You just said they get up and start wondering around. That doesn’t mean they aren’t paying attention. It just means they’re doing something else while they are watching or listening. It just means they don’t like to sit still and stare at a screen, which is normal.
Genuinely not paying any attention to the guest or the movie is so utterly bizarre that no one is going to assume that it what you meant. We’re going to assume it’s something we’ve seen other people actually do.
There is no reason to attack us for not being able to read your mind.
I’ve been with people like this and it drives me crazy too.
I’m not talking about watching TV for company or background noise or even casual entertainment.
This is when the person specifically picks out something for you to watch together, the sort of thing that requires attention. And then disappears randomly throughout. Doesn’t ask you to pause it. What was the point of this?