Phone-Checkers – Stay at Home!

I guess I’m part of the mobile phone generation. I can remember when they really became popular and I bought my first ‘brick’. They’ve really evolved since then; going through the ‘flip phone’ trend then getting smaller and smaller before getting bigger and bigger. Now you can organise your whole life through your own hand-held computer and never be disconnected for a single second.

All of this is fine. This post isn’t about how rude I find it when I’m out for dinner with someone and they get their phone out to check Facebook or send a message. It’s not even about having to repeat myself because the person I’m talking to got distracted by their winning streak on Candy Crush going sour. Of course this is incredibly irritating but it’s not what this post is about. No, this is about the sheer arrogance of strangers and how it interferes with my free time.

I was at the theatre last night along with a thousand or so other people. The tickets weren’t cheap and presumably everyone who was there wanted to be there. So why did people keep checking their phones? Seriously, if you know, please tell me. Even if it’s for a single second, that visual fog horn of arrogance draws attention and breaks the theatre magic. It makes me want to throw my programme at the offender and pray for a head-shot.

But maybe I’m going too far. I appreciate that people have responsibilities. Leaving a child at home with a babysitter, for example, may make a parent worry and reach for the phone should it buzz. If there’s a fire, fair enough, they should hot-foot it out of there and rescue their child. But people went out and enjoyed their lives pre-mobile phones. And nobody who ruined my evening last night immediately left, causing me to assume that no child was facing immediate peril.

I’m guessing the majority of arrogant phone-checkers wanted to know the time (but did checking actually change the time?). Perhaps it was habit. Or boredom. Or… I’ve honestly run out of pathetic excuses.

Last night I saw Les Mis. as a birthday treat. I had been looking forward to it for a very long time and it was, as anticipated, wonderful. I will forever remember, however, the person two seats to my left getting his phone out no less than a dozen times in the first half. I counted. The person two seats to my right scored two. One row down, one. Some distance to my left, one. Some distance to my right, two and someone in a box, one.

Many thanks to all of you for marring the occasion. Maybe don’t bother leaving the house next time. Sit at home alone on your phone and have just as much fun. The rest of us will enjoy living in the real world much more without you around.

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