Does the Audience Owe a Movie Respect?

The Alamo Drafthouse blog decided to re-ignite the discussion over texting in theatres by writing a post calling for theatres to unequivocally ban texting. I agree. Texting is a scourge and shouldn’t be allowed. People who text during a movie are awful. The Drafthouse gives three reasons for why texting shouldn’t be allowed, and though I agree with the overall sentiment, I actually only agree with one of their reasons.

The third reason they give, which is the one I agree with, is that texting is disrespectful to the rest of the audience who have paid to see a film, not to be distracted by the blindingly bright light coming from your iPhone screen. In fact, that’s pretty much the only reason there is the not allow texting, and it’s more than good enough for me. The second reason they give is that it’s condescending to think that 20-somethings today can’t sit down for a 2-hour movie without distracting themselves. That may or may not be true, but it really has nothing to do with whether or not texting should be allowed. But it’s the first reason the Alamo Drafthouse gives that caught my ire. Not only do I think it’s a poor reason to ban texting, it’s a terrible ethos.