People who go to the cinema and sit on their phones for the whole film, why?

[Ahsoka2002]

I'm genuinely curious

Live captions?

What for?

Deaf people?

It’s just grim, so grim that people can’t look up, enjoy their surroundings, perhaps strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to them and sit comfortably for a few minutes alone, without needing to get on their phone to mindlessly scroll practice french conjugations.

I have done it before myself, some movies are that rubbish.

Then walk out. Why distract the people who want to be there with your phone?

Then leave.

Don't be a selfish prick and ruin the experience for the other people who have paid money to be there.

Absolutely. Seriously, I'd love to hear the defence of this. Sit in the lobby if you're waiting for someone else. Kids films, suck it up.

Is it fanciful to think the world will move online? If people can’t be bothered with anything in the real world anymore and resent being taken away from their phone /online world? Any off the phone time is seen as a boring worthy chore?

Read an interesting article that a young professor has tracked the reduction in birth rate to the widespread adoption of smart phones. Think she’s onto something there.

In answeŕtòthis (me on my phone to find out who voiced the animated film I was watching) I couldn't wait till the end as it was driving me nuts!
Also I go in the afternoons when there are very few people to annoy.

I think there is a difference in quickly checking your phone if you are waiting for a text or desperately need to know that, yes...that cartoon wolf is Sam Rockwell and spending an entire film annoying people with a bright screen.

@Magpie50 but it IS annoying to the few people who have paid for their ticket to see a film. If you can't stand to wait, go outside for a moment. Inconvenience yourself not anyone else..and yes you moving about will be less annoying than your phone screen.

Apologies in advance because this is going to sound snooty but we only go to highbrow films now (few and far between) because the popular films attract the worst audience behaviour.

Foreign language film? No problem. Popular half-term blockbuster - prepare to sit amongst the food smells, eating noises and mobile phone shenanigans.

Same with the London theatre these days. I wouldn’t waste my money on a West End musical because of the uncouth audiences - once was enough!

But you could have waited. Yiu just chose not too. You chose to irritate the “very few” people there (who cares how few?) to save yourself the mild inconsequential irritation of waiting for the credits. And that, in a nutshell, sugar this thread is about.

It really is.

I wouldn't actually do it, but I am tempted sometimes.

My son has a card that entitles him to have someone to accompany him, which is usually me. He likes horror films, but I don't.

So the person on the phone might, in some circumstances, be the companion who is there because their loved one wanted to go but has no interest in the film.

Doesn't excuse them though, it's very distracting and I wouldn't do it. I just shut my eyes and think of unicorns and fluffy things.

So use your earbuds and leave your phone in your bag

I have listened to an audiobook during a kids' film, but my phone was in my bag and I had one earbud in so it wouldn't have disturbed anyone. Dh fell asleep during badguys 2

No, I hear you. I live in London and my favourite cinema is the BFI; they expressly forbid food and drink, and I don’t think anyone in the audience would even dream of talking or shining their phone screen during the film. But if they did I’ve no doubt that the full wrath of the ushers would descend upon them 😄

Depends on the musical. Juke box nonsense - definitely a problem. Lloyd Webber - problems possible but I wouldn’t want to go anyway. More niche/clever stuff? Fine

Yeah, I went to see Sweeney Todd with Imelda Staunton and the audience was well behaved. That was some years ago, admittedly.

Haven’t seen any bad behaviour at any of my more recent trips - Cabaret, Hadestown, Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Next to Normal etc

I'd say they were the kind of shows where you'd expect to see decent behaviour. What is Cabaret like, by the way?

Brilliant. Just a whole theatrical experience from the moment you enter the theatre. Cheap tickets are available (I paid £30) with a great view of the stage.

Good to know, thanks! I've never seen a stage production because I tend to think if it's not Liza, what's the point, but maybe I need to be more open-minded.

How do you know they can’t? Maybe they’ve been people watching all day. Because someone chooses on one occasion you witness to look at something on their phone doesn’t mean they do it all the time or that it’s mindless. And sometimes being mindless is ok too.