We went to the cinema the other day. Sat as near to the back as we could get, I find my eyes don't cope with being too close to the screen for some reason, quite probably the same one which means my arms aren't long enough anymore for newsprint !
Anyway, the thing which nearly spoiled the outing for me was the fairy light effect of all the little lit up screens of handsets being used for face-tweeting or whatever throughout the film. I actually wanted to execute a couple of them by the end as an example to the others.
Same in restaurants. I get really ticked off if someone at my table starts tapping away on a phone or accepts / makes a call during the meal. Just the height of rudeness in my opinion. I'd quite like to stamp on their phone.
I always turn mine off if I'm in such a situation and especially in business meetings. If people have set aside time to confer on a subject it is totally unacceptable in my view to allow an interruption from someone's phone. Thay's what voicemail is for.
There, better now.
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A lost cause, I'm afraid, Humph. I don't take my mobile to meetings unless (very occasionally) I'm expecting an interruption that's more important than the meeting itself - in which case I'll apologize for it at the start, just as I would if I thought someone might come into the room to extract me. But practically nobody else does this; perhaps I should invite you to my meetings.
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Unbreakable rule for me. I do though always leave a temporary voicemail greeting along the lines of,
"Sorry I can't take your call right now but I'll be picking up voicemails after 11.30. Please leave a message" or on my email I'll leave a similar temporary "out of office" message but always with a specific time / date stated when I'll be back/available.
No one has ever complained. It's not hard to do and prevents time robbery.
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If the phones are on silent and they're not taking calls then what does it matter? Clearly the film is so poor they'd rather be messing with their phones than paying attention to something they've paid for!
Sit nearer the front then there won't be so many distractions!
Not a fan of people playing with their phone while they're talking to you though. But I must admit now and then I can't resist the urge and have to check my phone. I think it's OCD rather than rudeness on my part :-)
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I know we've had this cinema discussion before, but it's worth putting together a reasonable surround system, separates bought used can make the basis of something quite special.
Not suggesting becoming as reclusive as we have is right for everyone, but the ever more selfish behaviour of the great unwashed in all circumstances isn't getting any better, you can't beat them so avoid them is my answer.
For work or business you just have to put up with ever worse ill manners as best you can, but i'm blowed if i'm paying for the privelidge.
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The community cinema/theater I volunteer at has a no signal on any network, I guess it's down to the steel framed (modern) construction being an ad-hoc Faraday cage.
I can't believe it now but when I was in work, I carried three phones, two work ones on different networks and my own (on a third carrier) - I remember in meetings it appeared that it was almost a willy waving exercise to see how many phones one whipped out at meetings. In one meeting I took my original Motorola flip-phone (Tac ? with an extendable plastic comedy aerial) and pretended it was Sat-Phone - a few swallowed it :-)
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I have two phones, one personal and one business. One on Three and the other Vodaphone, so if one masks goes down I always have signal on the other phone.
I must admit I panic when I go into no signal areas.
I do try and answer it when I can, but I draw the line at cinemas and Saturday nights.
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>> I must admit I panic when I go into no signal areas.
Panic? PANIC? about what? nothing bad is going to happen.
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...Panic? PANIC? about what? nothing bad is going to happen...
Quite so, and bad news travels quickly, so if there is any, it will reach you soon enough.
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I panic because well it feels like an important part of my brain is missing, like lost in a field in Hampshire or something.
And I resisted having a mobile phone so long!
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I much prefer people to play with their phones (while on silent) at the cinema than the noise made by popcorn & crisp packet rustling / crunching, and drink slurping.
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>> I must admit I panic when I go into no signal areas.
If we're out of contact for an hour or two now we start to worry.
When I was a kid we used to stay for a week in a Lakeland farmhouse with no phone (& no leccy until 1965). The phone box in Portinscale allowed a midweek call to check Gran was OK.
A telegram would have been the quickest way to contact us.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 31 Oct 11 at 14:01
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I just don't go to the cinema any more, however...............
Years ago I set my mobile's alarm to sound it's ring tone just after I got on a London tube and then had a 'conversation' about this wonderful new network. Friends with me commented on the number of people that got out their mobiles and stared at the screen.
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It surprises me how many people, often older than myself, who interrupt a conversation to answer a text message, let alone a voice call.
They would think it rude if the other person turned on the radio or television while they were speaking.
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"no phone (& no leccy until 1965)"
I was wondering the other day how my parents used to co-ordinate the family gathering at Christmas when I was young- family used to come from all over the country to stay at our house for a few days, or drop in while others were there. We had no phones then.
Maybe a migratory thing...
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I remember my father used to get last minute shift changes by telegram, A PO boy in uniform would rock up on his BSA bantam.
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>> Maybe a migratory thing...
My Mother, a member of Jimmy Savile's class of '26, says family turning up unexpectedly was a given. They'd decide after church to go and see 'our Alice' and jump on the bus. Gran was presumably wise to this and would have sufficient bread and tin of ham etx.
The kettle was always on the range and the job's done.
We're much more fussy these days.
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My mum, gran, aunties etc, always threw some scones or a cake in the oven at the end of cooking Sunday lunch, in case someone popped round.
Regular meetings were a given - ie every second Saturday was one set of grandparents, every third Sunday was another set.
Short letters were written, and delivered the next day to arrange things. Sometimes you rocked up unexpected or uninvited, and your target was not in, (or pretending they were not in) so a secondary target was always planned,.
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There was letter in the Telegraph years ago from a London office worker on this topic.
He said he used to send his wife a post card at lunchtime to advise her if he would be late home from work.
I'd never heard of same day delivery, but no one challenged it.
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Interesting site giving details of the Victorian postal system. Hardly need email if we had that sort of service!
www.victorianlondon.org/communications/dickens-postalregulations.htm
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Sort of an early texting system - wonder if he said something like.
"B l8 hme frm wrk luv LOL"
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>>
>> He said he used to send his wife a post card at lunchtime to advise
>> her if he would be late home from work.
>>
>> I'd never heard of same day delivery, but no one challenged it.
>>
I can confirm it. I have recently been sorting through a large collection of family postcards - ie all the postcards sent by my family to each other, and received from friends, since about 1890.
It was quite common for people to post off a card saying when they would be arriving home later the same day. Obviously sent by an earlier or faster train.
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>> . . . and your target was not in, (or pretending they were not
>> in) so a secondary target was always planned,.
>>
You make it sound like a Bomber Command raid on Germany, circa 1944! :-)
Last edited by: Londoner on Tue 1 Nov 11 at 11:29
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given that you never knew if your transport would get you back home again, yes it was very similar.
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Telephonic irritations and others... - WillDeBeest
