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Originally Posted by Hardknock
Honestly, I don't care if I'm in a theater and someone just flips open his phone just to look up something. I paid to see the movie. Not watch this kid mess with his phone.
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Exactly my point. I want to watch what's on the screen, not someone in front of me checking text messages.
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I don't see how a tiny screen on a phone can be more distracting than the huge silver screen and the soundtrack that goes alone with it. Now, if it's ringing and ringing and ringing, he answers and yacks away, that's different.
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The sight of the cell phone's screen is just as distracting to many people as the sound of it's ringing or it's owner talking. Movies are both visual and auditory.
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There are also situations where is is not possible to turn your phone off. For my job, sometimes I am on call and I have to be ready to go to work at a moments notice. That means keeping the phone on. While in a movie for example, it'll be on silent but if won't be off. There's no way I'm going to stay chained to my house waiting for my land line to ring on my on-call days when I can be out doing errands and other activities and carry a cell.
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But there really aren't any situations where it's not possible to turn the phone off. The situation you describe leaves you with three choices I can see: Turning it off, leaving it on and foregoing an activity, or leaving it on and potentially disturbing others. Turning it off and risking the loss of your job isn't a good option, which leaves you with not going to the movie on that particular night, or going and potentially disturbing others. If you choose to go to a movie and check your phone in the theater while in the line of sight of other patrons, you're lessening the enjoyment of those you distract because of your choice.
Grace is on call a couple of times a week, and she doesn't stay home, and, like you, carries a phone with her so she can be contacted easily and quickly. Being on call does, however restrict her from doing certain things, like drinking alcohol, or going out of town, even on her days off. If we're going out on one of her on-call days, we go out to dinner, or dancing, or play videogames or miniature golf or go shopping or one of any of a dozen other things that can be done where light and noise are a minimal disruption. lf there's a movie we want to see at the theater, we simply go on a night she's not on call, and do something else, like watch a dvd at home or any of the other things I mentioned.
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Overall, I can understand your frustrations and I see where you're coming from, but I think that you're just being a little too nit-picky about cell phone use. Realize that it's not possible for everyone to follow your set of rules but at the same time people could be a little more considerate.
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But it is possible. Inconvenient in many cases, sure, but that's true of just about everything in life. It's inconvenient for me to have my cell phone off when I'm teaching a class, but I nonetheless leave it off. I check for messages during breaks or lunch, and return important calls then. I don't think I've ever, in my life received a call that was so urgent it couldn't wait until I had time to check messages.