Cell Phones in Theaters

I go to The Grand Theater in D'Iberville pretty often. After years of having people using their cell phones to check messages and text during movies and driving others crazy, they established a no tolerance policy concerning cell phones. The policy states that if you use your phone during a movie, you will be asked to leave and you won't be refunded your money. I thought that policy was wonderful until I tested it. Not long into a movie last week, a woman in front of me opened her phone and started checking messages. I told her that she needed to turn it off or she would be kicked out. She just turned around and grinned at me. I said, O.K. and got up and got the person who is in charge of enforcing the rule. She did get the woman out, but a few minutes later, she was back in her seat. After I left, my husband said that she tried to pass the phone to someone else in her party. Soon after, the man sitting two seats from me on my row turned his on. He saw that the policy isn't being enforced. I don't know how the inconsiderate woman got back in, but I think that they should have a No Excuse policy that includes grown-ups, not just teenagers.

The problem is - why do people pay good money to go to a movie only to check their e-mails and messages and text all throughout the movie? Don't they realize that the bright light distracts others? In the case of people who have had cataract surgery, bright lights really bother their (my) eyes. Besides the fact that when a bright light comes on, your attention is distracted from the screen and you miss part of the movie. People used to be able to live without thier cell phone as another appendage to their body. They used to go to movies and their only vice was talking too much. They used to be able to go grocery shopping without having to talk up and down the aisle talking non-stop. They used to be able to drive a car without talking on their phone. And, worse of all, texting while driving. Texting while driving is the most dangerous thing that any stupid person could do. What is wrong with people like that? Texts can wait - they can't be that important. Don't these people have any sense of self? Must they always be talking to someone else? I think is that it would be a Wonderful World if people would just "grow up" and use their cell phones wisely, - not be co-dependent on them. It makes me wonder, "What's the world coming to?" I shudder to think.