We're Still Cultural Nitwits When It Comes To Cell Phone Etiquette And Enforcement
from the slow-learners dept
Apparently we're still rather idiotically feeling out the boundaries of cell phone etiquette and common sense after decades of cellular phone experience. Last week a Broadway play attendee nonchalantly climbed on stage before a production of Hand of God to use the set's (inoperable and quite fake) power outlet. When tracked down by one news outlet, the man proudly proclaimed that he was drunk, and that he needed to charge his phone just then because "girls were calling all day. What would you do?" There's a video of said nitwit's public apology to the theater community making the rounds.We're apparently not much better when it comes to enforcing cell phone etiquette. A week later, Actor Patti LuPone broke proscenium and ripped a cell phone out of a theater attendee's hands after the audience member wouldn't stop texting during a performance. LuPone issued a statement shortly thereafter suggesting that idiots without etiquette have forced her hand in the matter, and she's not thrilled to be forced into the role of audience baby sitter:
We work hard on stage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few, rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones. They cannot put them down. When a phone goes off or when a LED screen can be seen in the dark it ruins the experience for everyone else - the majority of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage. I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore. Now I’m putting battle gear on over my costume to marshall the audience as well as perform.Across the pond, police have shown they're still learning the lines of cell phone etiquette as well, after UK Transit police had to walk back a recent decision to arrest a 45-year-old man for "abstracting electricity" by charging his iPhone via a train power outlet:
"She said I’m abstracting electricity. She kept saying it’s a crime. We were just coming into the station and there happened to be about four police officers on the platform.Some Internet forum users state that the outlets are generally reserved for cleaning the trains, and often feature stickers stating "not for public use." Still, if transit authorities don't want people using the outlets, it makes sense to make them less accessible. The law in question is also pretty clearly focused on cheating utility meters and is reserved for "high value" theft where the victim faces "substantial loss," making the case a bit of a tough sell. As a result, the police subsequently "de-arrested" the man after realizing that they were "abstracting" common sense from their daily enforcement practices:
"She called to them and said: 'This guy’s been abstracting electricity, he needs to be arrested'."
"We were called to Camden Road London Overground station on Friday 10 July to a report of a man becoming aggressive when challenged by a PCSO about his use of a plug socket onboard an Overground train."Given that Motorola researcher Martin Cooper designed the first cell phone back in 1973, you'd think that after 42 years of experience with the devices we'd be a little better at understanding the socially-acceptable norms for using them -- and preventing their use. Of course given that people still talk in movie theaters, often don't pay attention to what their kids are doing, and frequently treat one another abysmally, that inconsiderate boneheadedness certainly isn't the fault of the technology.
"Shortly after 3.30pm, a 45-year-old man from Islington was arrested on suspicion of abstracting electricity, for which he was de-arrested shortly after. He was further arrested for unacceptable behaviour and has been reported for this offence."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: abstracting energy, charging, etiquette, mobile phones
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
More
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Slaves to the machine...
People on the bus, for instance, might on occasion have talked to each other before everyone had cell phones, and when SMS was less available and less popular and less understood we had a phase of phone-shouting. Now we have the occasional (quieter) talker, and lots of people smiling and giggling at someone via SMS or chat.
So they're connecting, but to someone they love. And they feel better about life even before they get home.
Granted, this is San Francisco and anecdotal. In Chicago and New York it might be different.
Oh yeah, some folks may read stuff on a tablet (me) or play games on their electronics. That falls in the same category as the book you take on a train.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Slaves to the machine...
No more so than now. Before cell phones, people on the bus isolated themselves by reading or listening to music instead of with cell phones.
Nothing has changed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
De-arrested?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ball and Chain
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1m_fKbfcb4
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Of course not. Everyone knows Google is at fault.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
I suspect that Google would be happy for your phone's location services to detect if you are in a sound-sensitive zone and silence your phone for you.
But then we'd call that Google-creepy.
One option is to build Faraday cages into theater architecture. San Francisco's Cliff House (a restaurant, not a theater) is built in that way, and there's no service whatsoever while in the building.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
> theater architecture. San Francisco's Cliff
> House (a restaurant, not a theater) is built
> in that way, and there's no service whatsoever
> while in the building.
I'm all for this idea, since the FCC refuses to allow private property owners to control this nonsense in the most direct way, by jamming the frakking things, passive blocking is definitely something I'd consider when building a theater or concert hall.
I'm sure some braindead cell addict would claim that's a violation of their constitutional right to text and their right to annoy everyone around them, and there'd be an equally braindead judge somewhere that would take such a complaint seriously.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
Active cell phone jammers are illegal to operate even within your own property.
https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jamming-cell-phones-and-gps-equipment-against-law
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
> even within your own property.
No shit. That's what we're talking about-- the reasons for that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I'm pretty sure inconsiderate boneheadedness has been around for centuries.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
NYC in 1999 at Death of a Salesman
Brian Dennehy went off on some jerk with a cell phone during a performance of Death of a Salesman. I wasn't there but the story made the local news.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Whereas...
I'm also aware enough to turn off both sound and hotspot when I'm at an engagement.
Also, due to a coffee accident a year ago, the speaker is very quiet, so I tend not to rely on sounds for alerts anyway.
It's possible to have a phone, and to exercise consideration while using it, just as it is possible to have a car or (more related) a pager and exercise consideration in its use.
It's not about the phone. It's about the people being impolite apes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Plugs
http://blog.huwi.ch/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/wpid-Photo-01.08.2011-08266.jpg
Yes, that's between every pair of seats.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Plugs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PCSO = Plastic Plod
But noooo, you must respect their authoritah!
They also have a history of abusing Section 44 'stop-and-search' powers. Railway enthusiasts (trainspotters, railfans, cranks, foamers, veg, whatever you call them) particularly got it in the neck, as those people commit the 'suspicious' act of hanging around on railway station platforms, photographing trains.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Officer: Sir, you are under arrest for using your dinner fork to eat your salad. Stop resisting!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lights
It's enraging beyond belief. I wonder how people managed to find a seat in a theater before cell phones?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lights
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Lights
> for this purpose.
Ushers didn't point their flashlights right in the eyes of the other patrons. They pointed their flashlights at the floor to help people see the stairs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lights
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Lights
I had stopped. But there's a new crop of smaller theaters that have brought the pleasantness back to the experience. I go to those. No first-run movies, but who cares?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Lights
The new trend seems to be people who walk into the theater and open fire on the crowd. I know because I saw it on the news. It's enraging beyond belief!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]