How hard is it to switch off your phone?

[Yoghurti]

After a second incident of a phone going off during the same theatre production in a week, you have to ask the question WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO SWITCH THEIR PHONE OFF?

It’s an hour to 90 minutes before the interval - can they honestly not handle switching it off for that length of time?

Absolute total morons.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jun/13/rosamund-pike-keeps-cool-phone-alarm-interrupts-performance-inter-alia

“Vile” 🤣🤣 Oh give it a rest.

You can download a shortcut app to switch off your phone.

You’re going to have a portion of people who are convinced they’ve pressed whatever button is required and the bloody thing still goes off.

If I turn my phone off my hearing aids stop working properly as the phone controls a lot of the EQ and volume settings.

I do try and always set it to silent but I have ADHD and sometimes forget.

YANBU. I was in the audience of a two-hour including interval (so, short) play in a small theatre last week, and phones went off five times. Absolute arseholes. I felt bad for the performers.

Don't people turn their phone off every night?

How did those people survive before phones?

I was watching the World Snooker championship on TV, the audience had been told several times to switch their phones off. They were told they would be put out if it happens.
Sure enough, during the semi final or final, a phone starts ringing. They were told to leave by the referee, unable to follow simple instructions!

It doesn't suit Apple or Googles business plans for phones to be off for long periods of time. The very first thing they tasked "AI" with was how to ensure as many phones stay as connected as possible. Moving away from a single press (which activates the "please don't kill me" agent) is a good example.

.

A bit overkill. No need for any of that. On modern phones the side key settings have simple been set to a default of doing something such as opening bixby or similar. You just need to change the side key action in your phones settings, set it to show the power menu when you press and hold

No. Why would you?

That's a bit like saying "how did people survive without cars" or "how did people survive without electricity". Life has moved on.

It’s actually not particularly like that as far as I’m concerned because I am old enough to remember life without mobile phones, and most of the people in the theatre audience were significantly older than me so will have spent most of their lives living without them. In any case the key word I was responding to is ‘can’t’. ‘Can’t’ turn their phones off. Yes, they can, they’re choosing not to.

I had the same problem with my samsung and it drove me mad. I had to go to the shop, where they showed me how to pull down the menu from the top to find the button.
I'm glad to know i wasn't the only one.

And, OP, YADNBU

Well, yes, my diabetic DH could turn his phone off but believe me, if he had a hypo, getting a testing kit out, pricking his finger, struggling to read the machine and scrabbling around for jelly babies in the dark would be a lot more disruptive than just checking his phone app and grabbing the sweets.

Because I don't need a phone at night. I don't want it disturbing me so it can go off.

Weird that you could be having a life event so serious that you couldn't turn off your phone, but could still attend the theatre.

It's not a minor issue to people who have shelled out serious money for a performance, only to have it ruined by someone else's selfish or thoughtless behaviour.

Why don't people google how to use their phone?

Put it on silent or Do Not Disturb. I never turn my phone off as I use it as an alarm and DH has an elderly parent who may need to contact us.

Does your phone find Google ?

Lots of people use alarm clocks

DS cannot switch his phone off at all it’s a medical device. I can’t either as I follow it on my phone. Could potentially kill him if he doesn’t hear his low alarms. But I know that’s probably the one acception before ds was diagnosed I didn’t even own a mobile phone I hated them 😂

I just turn off the volume tbh. I find it a faff to turn off too.

I’m sure they do, I’m just explaining why people may not turn their phones off overnight.