Oprah just continued what Phil started. In rough general terms, people used to understand that there was a difference between private behavior and public behavior, and just because you could do something doesn’t mean you should.
Then normal, average, everyday people went on talk shows and discussed with Phil Donahue and millions of his television-audience friends the most intimate details of their lives. Instead of being told that they shouldn’t be airing their dirty laundry in public, they were praised for their bravery in coming forward to tell their story. And if their story is one about how they are a complete fuck up, so much the better. I think it started this mind-shift, to where normal people, good people, began to get this blind spot. They started to think that just because they could do something, they should, and why weren’t they getting praised for it, too? There’s a coarsening in our public behavior, I think, that results from this talk show saturation. I therefore blame Phil Donahue.
I just saw an old episode of In Living Color. They had a skit about how a theater had a no-talking-during-the-film rule. They had a bouncer-like guy come in and take away the guy who was talking during the movie. The joke wasn’t really funny, but it reminded me of this thread.
There have always been people who have acted like jerks in the movie by talking the whole time. However, today people can go by themselves and still do it. Even worse, they can talk to each other and use the cell phones, making loud beeping noises and flashing blue screens that distract from the picture. This is what seems to have the bulk of the posters in this thread pissed: people talking during the movies. The problem was around 15 years ago as evidenced by In Living Color, it’s around today, it’ll be around 15 years from now. The only difference is now there’s a technology to blame.
I feel that if I’m paying for a service, I should be able to use it wherever I want, provided it’s not a “real” distraction to people. If my phone vibrates (read makes a slight buzzing noise that not going to be audible during a movie, what with the eardrum splitting volume in most theaters), and I answer it and say “One second please” in a low voice (which will also be barely audible during a movie), and get up and leave, it’s not an inconvienience to anyone but me, since I’m missing the movie. I’m out from in front of you in less than 20 seconds most of the time, which is 0.2% of the movie. Even if it happens three or four times, it’s not a real distration and anyone saying it is is lying. Quit being so petty and enjoy the movie.
Some of you also seem to be annoyed at people who “simply must be connected at all times”. I really don’t get why that bothers you. Why are you letting something so minor that someone else does, who has absolutely zero effect on your life in any way shape or form, get under your skin? If I, adhemar want to be connected, or Mama Tiger’s husband want or need to be connected, it’s not your business, so fuck off.
You guys are blaming the gun for the shooting. Once you outlaw cell phones, only outlaws will have cell phones. You can have my cell phone when you pry it from my belt loop of my cold dead corpse.
At the back of my church there’s a little glass-encased room for all the little kids and their moms and dads to sit through the mass. Theaters could build one of these in each of their theatres, and anybody who wants to talk and listen to other people talk during the movie could go in there.
Then again, we may be getting carried away with this. Are we really being obnoxious if we fail to sit stock-still and utterly silent for the entire movie? Is a whispered “Pass the popcorn” rude? Can I still bring in my Black Velvet to mix with the Sprite I bought at the concession stand? Oops, got a little distracted there.
If you can’t stand disturbances while you watch a movie, better watch it at home. I hear Blockbuster is open holidays!
An update from the front lines: My daughter’s high school Winter Choral Concert was last night. Before it started, the principal came out and gave a quick speech about how hard the kids had worked, how glad he was to see such a good turnout, blah, blah, blah. He then made a comment about making sure cell phones and other devices were on silent or vibrate. He paused and then said, “Please, right now, everyone check and make sure it’s on Silent.” There was then a lot of rustling as people did just that. Apparently, the night before at the band concert, they’d had a lot of cell phones ringing throughout the concert - so much so that halfway through, the band teacher had to actually stop and ask people to turn them off. :rolleyes:
I’m happy to report that not one cell phone rang the entire time.
I wish I could say that I’m surprised at the number of people who think it is their unalienable right to make a public space their private den. A place where they can talk either on a cell phone or to those around them while others are trying to listen to a performance whose enjoyment depends upon hearing what the performers are saying or doing.
Mid-50s here, Kalhoun. There’s a big difference, however, between people who truly have a need to be connected, who generally behave like adhemar or Lord Ashtar or Papa Tiger, trying to be unobtrusive about the phone ringing, answering it, and talking on it (i.e. out of the theater) and those who sit there texting constantly and answering loud rings and holding loud conversations in the theater proper.
I also don’t think anyone here who supports having a phone in a theater fits within the broad brush David Simmons is painting us with – nobody has said it’s okay to be loud and rude. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, you know, people – it’s possible to actually use technology in a courteous and unobtrusive way!
I agree, most people aren’t in the Loud ‘n’ Rude category, but the mindset of needing to constantly be connected is something I notice more prominently amongst the younger set. People who’ve never been NOT connected. I lived without a phone for years (back in the early '70s when the Earth was still cooling). I have a cell phone that was given to me by my employer. I forget to take it with me when I go out. I’m fine with being out in public without a phone in my pocket. But I know plenty of young people who would rather be outside without their pants than to go out without their phone.
When it affects the actors to this extent, it is more than just an irritant when the performance comes to a grinding halt.
For every one who says they have their phone on vibrate you can bet your bottom dollar there’s a dozen who thinks it’s their unalienable right to use their phone regardless of the nuisance to everyone else.
On a similiar theme I went to a wedding in the local church last Saturday and the rector started the proceedings by asking everyone to switch off their phones. He’s had both weddings and funerals interrupted in the past few months.
I posted the above link however to quote a bit of it which I hope to have clarified by New Yorkers.
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I can’t see how this can be true in view of what has already been posted here.
I wish I could say I’m surprised at the number of times the point I’ve been making seems to have been intentionally skewed in this thread, but I’m not.
Please understand. I’m not trying to convince you that it’s okay to talk on the phone for the whole movie, or even to be texting the whole time. It’s rude behavior, and only assholes act rudely when they know it bothers others. Somehow, I get the impression that a lot of you who are annoyed by these behaviors don’t bother to stand up for yourself and say something. A lot of you probably sit there, getting all steamed because how DARE they interrupt YOUR movie experience.
I submit that because there are some of us who know how to use the technology politely, jamming the cell phone signal is overly authoritarian.
However, if I have my phone on vibrate, and I leave the theater for a few minutes to take a call that comes through, IT DOES NOT AFFECT YOU. I’m being polite by taking it outside. So don’t get pissed at me, get pissed at the assholes who aren’t taking others into consideration.
If you’re getting out of your seat for something other than a bodily function, you are selfishly disrupting the show or the patrons (or both). If you’re expecting a call that’s so important that you simply must take it immediately, you shouldn’t go to the show that evening.
It’s this kind of thing that makes me proud to be a member of the SDMB.
All the cellphone users who post here are unfailingly polite and avoid using their phones if it might offend others. None of the smokers light up in forbidden zones or litter the ground with their detritus. All the parents have sweet, well-mannered children and immediately correct them if they do happen to act up. It is unfair to penalize any of these fine people for the acts of Others.
I love this place.
How do YOU (see I can yell too) know what affects me? If YOU get up and go past me at the denoument of a good joke or of an important theme in the plot or of a particularly good part of aria, none of those bother?
Your continually saying that you don’t think your actions ought to bother anyone is a piss poor argument.
I’ve had people get up and cross in front of me during a movie. It only takes a few seconds, and I’ve never felt bothered by it. If it ruins your movie experience, then I would suggest that you never leave your house again. It’s kind of normal for people out in the real world to hold you up for a second or two every now and then, and I’d really hate to see you inconvienienced so.
