Kicked out of theater for textingFollow

False dilemma. Again. I've already addressed this several times.



Nope. This is the heart of the issue. I do not believe that there is anything so important that I must respond to it while watching a film, but to which I can respond merely by sending a text. If it's important enough for me to interrupt my movie-going experience (and that of everyone else's), I will leave the theater and call the person back. If they didn't leave a number for me to call, then it wasn't that important for them.


Want to know why I do this? Because in order for me to explain anything to someone that would be important enough for me to need to explain it to them, would take dozens of texts back and forth. Now maybe that's because my job is more technical than most, but in my experience, one 5 minute phone call can replace hours of texts back and forth. It's a vastly more effective communication medium.



It's a false dilemma. It's never going to be a choice between me disrupting others by leaving the theater and me sending one or two texts. Anything that I can "fix" by sending a couple of text messages isn't something I need to deal with in real time. If it's important and time sensitive, I'll leave the theater and not come back until the issue is completely resolved. I'm not going to half-*** it by sitting in the theater potentially sending messages back and forth for an hour or more.




So I can miss the movie? That seems... strange. More likely someone will justify that things are so important that they must text in the theater, but not want to miss the film, so they're willing to disrupt others viewing experience in order to maintain their own convenience. Yeah. That's a hell of a lot more likely. Don't you agree?



Ok. Provide me an example of the last important text you sent while watching a movie in a theater. Since you said earlier that you have done this, I don't think it's unfair to ask what it was about.



Uh huh. And? What time sensitive emergencies arose which required that you respond to someone, but was still unimportant enough for you to do more than shoot back a text message while remaining in a theater watching a film? So if things fell apart, and you were responsible for things falling apart, you excused this with what? "No sir. I wasn't able to resolve the problem within the time needed. Well... I did send a text message to Jones telling him what to do. What was that sir? What was I doing? I was watching a film sir. Yes. I felt it was perfectly appropriate to continue watching the latest Harry Potter film rather than personally deal with this critical problem. Yeah. You'll have my resignation tomorrow".


Was that pretty much how it went? Lol!



Huh!? Where the hell did point #2 come from? If that's the case, then the whole argument is moot. Can we agree that if you're not receiving work calls on your phone outside of work hours, then the issue of replying to important work related messages while in the theater isn't relevant? I hope we can.

So let's ignore #2 and look at #1. Ok?


And on that question, I disagree. There are no text messages important enough to respond to while sitting in a theater during the film, but not important enough for you to leave the film to properly deal with, so as to not inconvenience everyone else more than necessary. As I said before, the odds of a single text response sufficiently resolving anything that is truly important is incredibly low. The kinds of things that would be resolved that way are really simple stupid things like "Where'd you leave the scissors?". Whoever is asking that, probably doesn't really need a response immediately. And something more important like "OMG! The doohicky broke loose from the flangerat and is causing the thingamabob to overheat. Tell us what to do!!!" is probably going to require more than just a single text.


I've never had an on-call page require less than 3 text messages and usually at least one or two phone conversations. Even if the response is "Crap. I'm at a theater watching a film and can't help you for at least 30 minutes, let me try to get the backup guy on call for you", it's going to take one response, a call to someone else for a phone number (assuming I don't have it), then a call/text to a third person. Then wait for a response from that person to make sure the issue has been properly handed off. That's all assuming this works. If it doesn't, then I'm on the hook to leave the theater and either come in to work, or go somewhere where I can remotely log in to deal with the issue directly.

Even if everything works perfectly, I'd have to send/receive at least 3-4 text messages to deal with that, and likely need to make a phone call anyway (so I'd have to leave the theater, right?). And if things don't go perfectly, it's going to take more than that. I suppose if you're on the hook for providing incredibly simplistic answers to standard questions from people who aren't capable of figuring out the answers themselves, but who apparently will be fully capable of resolving things via a single text reply from you, then maybe you have a point.

I just don't think that's a likely situation though.

So, then you never answered the question, so stop pretending that you had and just answer the question.

Your argument doesn't even make sense. You're avoiding answering a question by saying it's a "false dilemma". If you refuse to answer the question, then just say so. Don't act like I'm asking you to divide by zero.

You're implying that a person can NOT only respond in 2-3 messages, that it HAS to be a full conversation. I already proven that false and I can do so again.

Person : "Hey, my pc took a dump and the meeting is in 45 mins, do you have a copy of our presentation"

You: "Yea, I burned a copy and placed it in my black folder in the third drawer of my desk"

Person "Thanks man, you're a life savor!"

You: "No, problem!"

That is a good example of something important but not necessarily important enough to get up and leave the theater. So, what is the least annoying action to do here? Partake in 4 texts (showing light in the theater) or get up and leave the theater (blocking the screen and causing people to adjust themselves)?

This is not a false dilemma.



Well, that's just a difference of opinion. If you want to agree to disagree, then fine. I don't value a movie so much that I will ignore what's going on in REAL life. If the scenario above occurred, I would value that person having the presentation to brief way more important than a fragment of light that MIGHT annoy a grand total of 60 fragmented seconds of 2 a hour movie.

We can agree to disagree, but I question your judgement on determining what actually is important.



That maybe true for you and your job, but that it isn't true for everyone else. Given that, you can't assume that to be true always.



Nope.. Never see people go use the restroom or buy food/drinks from the concession stand? Yesterday, I saw a couple of people getting up, leaving and coming back. Buy everything you need and use the restroom before you enter the theater. If you gotta go, hold it till it's done.

The guy standing right in front of me literally blocking a part of the screen was thousands of pixels more annoying than the lights coming from the guys next to me.



I don't recall saying that. In any case, given the 3 year gap of not watching movies, I doubt I would remember it anyway if it were important.



You're confusing two arguments.

1. Texting something important, but not too important to have to leave the theater.

2. Being important enough to receive calls outside of the working hours.

You're combining the two.







Hence why I said you were confusing two arguments. That was an entire different argument that I stated numerous times already. You, took my comments in reference to #2 and merged them with my comments with #1 creating a false argument that I never mentioned.



Yet, I just gave you one in this post. Here's the thing though, I also mentioned texting "I'm sorry, in the theaters, I'll talk to you later". I think not telling a person that, but ignoring them is more inconsiderate to them than the people in the theater.

ITT: Alma's life revolves around texting.

The bold statements are prime examples of a lack of empathy. It's trying to be polite to the person you know by possibly offending the people you don't know -- the "Well if I don't find it annoying, you shouldn't either" attitude again. And that's not even bothering to consider if there is an auto-respond app available out there for your phone that will auto-respond with that same message, saving you the problem of constantly checking your phone.



In reality however, the movie environment was established long before cell phones. And of course, this is completely ignoring the pre-movie advertisements telling you to turn off your cell phone or the "Silence is Golden" advertisement some movies play if they don't want to get too specific. Trying to argue conceptually about it here is just complaining.



If the true point of this thread was to ask the opinion of others, then you shouldn't have started trying to justify why someone might want to text...but that's the hindsight bias talking, I admit.

Bottom line: it's considered rude to others in general to whip out your phone to shoot off a text in the middle of the movie, and there's enough people offended by it for movie theaters to put out advertisements telling you turn off your phone. Keep in mind, businesses normally aren't going to care about things like that unless they risk taking a big financial hit.

[/quote]Of course, if you have to respond to every single text immediately, you aren't really important enough to have the luxury of discretion, either.

I stated that I believe the person who got kicked out was full of crap. I don't believe her side of the story and I don't feel sorry for her. I could be wrong, I just don't think so.



You're simply evaluating the scenario wrong. If the decision is to either a) respond to a quick text or b) responding 2 hours later b/c you "might" offend someone, choice 'a' is the most logical, sensible and considerate thing to do.

Another example.

Babysitter: "Hey Mr. Smith. Sorry, but something came up and my parents want me back home in an hour"
Parent: "Don't worry, it's ok, I'll ask my sister to cover down for you"
Parent: " Hey, sis, my babysitter had to bail, can you cover down on her just for 2-3 hours?"
Sister: "Sure, no problem, I'm on the way in just a few".
Parent" "Ok, thanks, let me know when you're there".
Sister: "ok"
........
Sister" "I'm here".
Parent: Thanks again"
Sister: "No problem"

So, you would rather for that person to either step in/out of the theater twice (4 trips across the screen) or ignore the fact that his babysitter was leaving as opposed to simply texting the above conversation?

Life goes on even when you're in the movies. It's one thing to carry on a casual conversation, but to get upset at people who text in relevance is selfish and inconsiderate, plain and simple.



There are ton of distractions in the theaters and cell phone lights are at the bottom of the list. People were able to walk around and talk before the theater environment and those two are much worse than a cell phone light.

The conceptual argument was in reference to that specific case. The "silence is golden" ad tells people to be considerate of others and silence your cellphones. That means don't start chatting with your bff on your day so far.



Do you know how these threads work? I ask your opinion, we express our opinions, we argue about our opinions. I'm not sure why you're surprised that there would be a debate on a difference of opinions.

Bottom line: While a light might temporarily distract you in the theaters, there can be legitimate reasons to text in the theater. People are over exaggerating the annoyance and being selfish and inconsiderate of other people's lives.


Nope, I was right. If you're not receiving phone calls outside of your work hours, then either you, your position or the actual problem isn't important.

You can create this fantasy world where everything is perfect, but even if you had a well trained staff, if you aren't getting phone calls then either you, your position or the actual problem isn't important. Otherwise, your well trained staff would contact you before they made an action that could severely affect your organization. Just because they know the answer to the problem doesn't mean anything. You're the person in charge and are ultimately responsible. You should be notified of any major changes.

Personally, I would've stepped out of the theater when I got the first text to actually call someone to watch my kids. I, personally, wouldn't leave something that important to a text message, not to mention that if my sister or whoever can't watch my kids, I will need to leave anyway, so going to the lobby is just a step towards that.

And that makes total sense to me as well. The thing is, the other people don't care about you and your problem, but their precious movie. Unless you are willing to stay out of the theater until the babysitter gets there, you're walking in front of people 4 times.

I personally think the care of your children is more important than a movie, but these posters don't think that way. That is unless they think those text messages would be more annoying than walking in front of the screen 4 times.

I don't know about this "four times" ****. I would've walked out into the lobby and stayed there until I knew my kids were taken care of. Which would be polite. Of course no one else in the theater cares about my problem. They shouldn't. It's not really their business. But sitting there with my phone open for a half an hour, waiting to see if my kid was taken care of, is ridiculous and rude.

There are also plenty of things that one could do if they anticipate getting an urgent message at the theater. Sit at the ends near the aisle, or behind/away from others. Those are usually the last seats to be filled, so they should typically be easy to secure. Maybe go to see movies a bit later in their release, so that the theater will be emptier. Turn the brightness on your phone way down, to minimize the illumination.

All pretty reasonable things to do, I think. Personally, I'll certainly tolerate a person taking a glance or two at their phone, and probably even allow them a text before I start to get irritated, depending on the context. But if fielding text messages in a theater is anything more than a once-in-a-blue-moon thing for you, then you're doing text messages wrong.

Edited, Jun 14th 2011 5:35pm by Eske