To Find this Woman in the Cinema Rude

[LessMissAbs]

Me and my friend were watching a film in the cinema tonight. She doesn't wear a watch and must have been checking her phone for the time - its a habit of hers to do this, or to ask people the time. I was sitting next to her and I didn't notice it.

There was an empty seat to her other side between her and a woman. The woman suddenly boomed out in the middle of the film, "If you want to play your phone, you can go outside and do it instead of in here".

It was mortifying, and she interrupted the film for me. I was really embarrassed for my friend, but we didn't say anything.

At the end of the film, as we were standing up to leave, I said to the woman "I don't really care if you were disturbed by a light during the film or not, I don't want to have to the film interrupted by your booming voice". She then started arguing back (she said something like "Oh you'd like to be a cheeky one, wouldn't you, and some other stuff) but we turned our backs towards her and her husband so that she was talking to ourselves, put on our coats and left.

Kind of ruined the film for both of us. Normally I find going to the cinema relaxing!

I'm actually a little worried about the number of posters on here who inexplicably have a problem with:-

(a) the constant puzzle of why someone might wish to know the time

(b) the obsession with variation from the one adjective per noun rule

And that's not even mentioning

(c) the interest in what someone else is doing with the tool in their lap

Does give them hours of endless fun though!

I don't believe that the silent cinema goers who go alone to the cinema without friends actually do.

Ever go to the cinema.

Therefore the perfect etiquette of their dream scenario is vitally important to them.

(d) It doesn't bother me so why should I give a shit about others.

Has the 'checking the time' thing been answered Less?

The fact of the matter is if you can check the time on your phone, the phone has to be switched on and if so potentially it might ring and that is extraordinarily rude.

SILENT.

LessMissAbs - why is it the act of a 'nutter stalker' to ask someone to stop doing something distracting that is putting someone else off enjoying the film? Why is someone's burning need to send a text/check the time/update their FB status so important that it doesn't matter if they distract other people?

It is possible to see your watch from the glow of the cinema screen. I have checked my watch many times during crappy kids films.

Because I want to. There is no law against wanting to know the time. Perhaps I have a babysitter on the clock, perhaps I have an onsession with the time and need to check my watch every 3 hours, perhaps I am bored out of my mind because the film is so rubbish.

As usual I just don't get why people are so black and white about issues like this.

So now you're saying the woman was probably racist OP.

''I think BoomingRantingBawling woman's version would be more like: "Two girls came into the cinema and sat next to me and my husband. They looked as if they could have been foreign too.''

Oh my God. How much more crap are you going to spout to try to prove your point?

OP - ''AIBU?''

Majority = ''yes.''

OP - ''But but but but but but but but ...............''

People checking their phones annoys the majority of cinema goers OP. This does not make them racist or lacking in finesse.

Maybe the friend has ocd? What did she sit around playing with before mobile phones became popular?

People who need to check the time at the cinema should just get a watch. Without a light.

I do believe the answer is that some people (insert rude words here) interpret the advert at the cinema with the disturbing ringtone to mean that you either switch your phone off OR switch it onto silent mode. That would explain the number of people using their phones in the average cinema but the lack of ringtones.

I have no idea why my friend checked the time or if she even did that. I must remember to interrogate her before she goes home. She's had such a lovely welcoming time here so far. I must admit I also checked my watch twice during the film too, as it was quite tense and I had some stupid notion of wondering how long the poor guy had to go with being shipwrecked. Maybe, just maybe she wondered the same thing? Or could it be that she likes to know how much of the film is still to go? Or just possibly, she likes to know the time?

What does it matter?!!

I think bawling woman told you why it mattered Less.

So now you're saying the woman was probably racist OP

I must admit its something that crossed my mind. She looks obviously not British. She isn't British. I have a British parent but don't look very British either. Not so much I thought that from the overreacting of the bawling woman, but the fact she moved seats the moment we arrived.

As I say, it crossed my mind, but who can say with any certainty. It could be that the woman just had a bad day.

I think a watch would make a nice present for your friend's next birthday Less.

Really the point is that if you don't have any real reason for needing to know the time, ordinary consideration demands that, if you want to check it, you do so in a manner which causes the least disturbance to others around you. And the way to do that is by using a watch. As has been pointed out, there is generally more than enough light from the screen to enable you to see that.

"(c) the interest in what someone else is doing with the tool in their lap

Does give them hours of endless fun though!"

I don't tend to buy friends presents I know they wouldn't use Sparklingbrook.

Do you find it goes down well yourself?

That pretty much sums it up, Maryz

Tobias - I think the reason that people are so 'black and white' about this issue is that they have paid through the nose for the cinema tickets, and would rather watch the film than watch other people mess around with their phones.

I honestly cannot understand why people can't put their phones aside for the couple of hours that a film is on (apart from a very few, rare and exceptional circumstances). The world is not going to end. Your friends outside the cinema are not going to forget you.

Are people genuinely incapable of concentrating for a couple of hours?

I would just say 'I have bought you a watch to stop you pissing off people in the cinema, because I am your friend' Less.

In that case you could, sportingly, wear a lapel watch. Your friend need just glance at you from time to time, then.

Though the lure of the phone may prove too much for her.