the new rude…
T’other week I went to the pictures to see Spielberg’s latest blockbuster, Disclosure Day. Notwithstanding the fact that I found the movie thoroughly unconvincing, underwhelming and strangely miscast, the thing I most remember about the whole experience is that several ‘viewers’ appeared to spend more time looking at their phone’s small-screen than the large silver screen! Having said that, the glow from their personal Instagrams created more of an eerie atmosphere than the film.
Apparently, this is quite a thing now across all forms of art from the theatre to the mosh-pit, the cinema to the gallery. Actors, artists and performers the world over have been making headlines as they remonstrate with their audiences for not paying attention, texting during performances, nonchalantly filming proceedings, taking a sly selfie or even making a call. In reality, what they’re railing against isn’t really the specific phone etiquette but our growing inability to be fully present.
Once upon a time it was socially acceptable to smoke fags inside, swear like a trooper, make continual discriminatory jokes and pat your secretary on the bottom. Thankfully norms change and usually for the better. You probably don’t see yourself as a rude ignoramus but are you sailing too close to that wind? Do you keep your earbuds in at the till, play videos in company, intentionally leave your phone face-up on the dinner table, hog the charging-socket in Costa whilst refusing to buy another flat-white?
This declining ability to completely engage with art, or multiple other activities for that matter, is a direct consequence of the digital landscape. The platforms through which we increasingly appear to live our lives have trained us in partial, interruptible consumption: the TikTok clip, the doom scroll, the YouTube teaser and the perfect Vinted purchase. The result is a culture, a society, that struggles to accept anything deserves our unbridled, undivided attention. Constant connection comes at a cost.
Another movie stalwart, Martin Scorsese, he of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Casino, GoodFellas and The Wolf of Wall Street fame, has publicly stated he no longer watches films in cinemas because of appalling audience behaviour. What does it say when one of the greatest living auteurs has given up on the shared experience his entire live has been built on? Oi. You in the stalls, put the phone away!
