Mobile phones being used during film in cinema!!!!

[Mamamiaherewegoagainmymy]

Arghh! Went to Vue to see film last night.

Aleast 5 people looked at their phones for 5- 10. Mins during said film.
So RUDE

I'm really surprised about the anger on here about this. I stopped going to the cinema for ages because of the behaviour of other people there. People jiggling in their seat so the whole row felt it, talking, eating noisy or smelly foods...

I'm not at all bothered by people looking at their phones.

I just ask them feckers to switch it off

I notice people doing it but it doesn't really bother me. It might if they made a voice call which you'd have to have some brass neck to do, but I can't get too worked up over a screen lighting up near me.
Not sure I think what Sandstorm is describing is that annoying really.

Those of you who ask people to stop or go and get a member of staff does that not affect your viewing pleasure more? I mean, I can understand if someone is on it for more than a few seconds, is taking photos or making a call but I cannot fathom why you'd take more time to do something about it than the person was on their phone for. I also cannot understand why me looking in my bag to see if I have a message could possibly bother you more than if I got the bag of sweets out of it and opened it. I don't even get it out, just check to see if the light is flashing and if it is check the name. So much vitriol for such a small act! Save it for something that matters.

Well the thing is Sandstorm that it's obvious from this thread that the vast majority of cinema goers find it annoying and distracting. So it can't really be a case of 'everyone's out of step except you' can it?

londonista I think people are envisioning me sitting on my phone having a blow by blow WhatsApp conversation with the babysitter about exactly what DS is doing at that second and then calling them shouting 'im in the cinema' Dom Jolly style!

No we're not.

user1485342611 all that can be surmised from this thread is that the majority of people responding finding it annoying. Based on the number of people who do it in the cinema I'd say it's probably 50/50.

I think alot of us have babysitters without having to check on them. Just turn it off and enjoy the film.

No it's not 50/50 or anything near it. It's always a small number of annoying people distracting and irritating the majority.

People are a bit uptight about this... Yes, it's annoying, but people leaving the cinema to check their phones is more distracting than a subtle glance at text messages, surely? I used to go to the cinema twice per week, sometimes more, and can't remember ever even noticing anyone on their phones. Aren't you looking at the screen? How distracting can it be?

(I will confess to checking I've got a signal during trailers, in case nursery/babysitter calls or in he past when I've been on call for work. But wouldn't check during the film),

Frenchknitting-more uptight then I realised, some very angry people about this.

People meandering in and out is far more distracting than people checking their phone.

I went to see Hamilton a couple of weeks back. Seats were a hundred quid a go.

I had to ask the grown woman sitting next to me to stop texting halfway through the first half.

Unbelievable.

Yes people do tend to get angry when a request by the cinema, for the benefit of all cinema goers, is ignored by an ignorant and selfish minority.

You can name call, belittle and insult all you like, it doesn't change the fact that cinema goers are told, at the beginning of the film, to switch their phones off, and there is a good reason for this.

A voice call is unacceptable yes but I have to say that it really doesn’t bother me too much if people check their phones. I don’t sit there doing it myself but I might have a quick glance at it in my bag - not sitting there with it on - again to check babysitter isn’t trying to get in touch. I think that’s much less disruptive than going out of the cinema to do it.

smerlin that really made me laugh. At least they were trying to educate themselves though!

Google the Wittertainment Code of Conduct. Thems the rules....

Hello to Jason Isaacs!

Sandstorm you’re backtracking now. This isn’t all about you.

OP YANBU I am a regular cinema goer and this is the most annoying thing. As soon as someone’s screen lights up anywhere within your field of view it distracts your attention and you’re bought out of the experience of the film. I’m pretty quick to firmly but politely ask someone to put their phone away, as soon as it’s apparent they are actually using it rather than quick check if it’s vibrated. Similarly whrn people are talking loudly etc. Embarrass them into social compliance, I guess, and no one has ever objected and phones get put away quickly. People know that it’s not on to be using screens in the cinema. They just bank on not being called out on their antisocial behaviour.

I went to see The Meg and someone in the front row listened to their voicemails through the first five minutes of the film. It’s just bizarre. Cinema tickets aren’t cheap and she had sat through all the trailers - why decide you need to hear your voicemails during the opening scene of the film you and everyone else has paid to watch??

It doesn't bother me personally but I don't turn the lights off to watch tv/films at home so I suppose the darkness is unusual to me and therefore a phone screen doesn't distract me. I also tend not to get massively engrossed in films anyway.

I wouldn't use my phone though because I know it annoys other people.

However, I do think that different things annoy different people and it's only convention that makes some things acceptable and some not.

I find people coming in and out of the theatre much more distracting that someone looking at their phone. And I hate the smell of nachos, popcorn etc that you get in cinemas. But both coming and going and eating are socially acceptable so I wouldn't ever complain. Maybe in a few years phone checking will be just another acceptable distraction.

It’s so distracting! Once someone wobone is out it’s all I can focus on, my eyes are drawn to the light! DH once completely
Lost his shit in the cinema over this 😂 after asking th lady nicely three times he just got up and took the phone from her hand and took it outside giving it to security he got a round of applause in the cinema despite me being sat there feeling mortified but he’d just had enough 😂
Just in case anyone gets offended she scrolling through Instagram

Considering the amount people pay to go to the cinema then end up spending time on the phone what's the point. Its when your sat at the back and you can see the brightness more. Don't get it. Quick check maybe can understand but that's it.

Have been in a screening where someone was having a full blown conversation and not even trying to be quiet either. If it's that important go outside for the call.

SerendipityFelix I was answering people who were specifically asking me about my actions. Obviously the thread isn't specifically about me.

And my first response just said I check my phone. Other people then assumed how/ frequency/ level of annoyance. I'm not backtracking.

No one assumed anything about how/frequency/level of annoyance.

What does that even mean?

You said that you check your phone at the cinema and people pointed out how annoying that is.

Blimey sandstorm so many posters have explained how they find it really irritating when someone looks at their phone but you don't seem to register it. Bizarre.

I was at the cinema a few weeks ago and a woman about 4 rows in front kept getting her phone out every 5 mins to check it. It was so distracting. Couldn't see what she was looking at from that distance but the light was enough.