Rules

Movie buffs and pop-culture freaks on the Internet have been abuzz about how the Alamo Drafthouse, a dine-in movie theatre chain based out of Austin, TX, had thrown a texting patron out after two warnings, then made a PSA of the angry (and perhaps slightly inebriated?) voicemail she had left in response to being kicked out without a refund.

What I can say about it is this:  there is a difference between watching a movie in a theatre and watching it at home by yourself/with friends.  At the movie theatre, you, as part of the audience, do not have the luxury of a pause or rewind button.  So when most people (or at least, when I) go to the movie theatre, they want to watch the MOVIE – they don’t want to hear any of your extraneous commentary.  They don’t want to hear about your drama with your boyfriend/girlfriend.  They don’t want to hear you ask your wife to pick up a gallon of milk on her way home.  When we go to the movie theatre, we want to pay attention to what’s going on on-screen.  We don’t want to read the text that you’re sending to your bestie.  We don’t want to see your unnecessarily detailed play-by-play on Twitter.

Same goes with live theatre.  This past winter, I was the House Manager for Crown Point Community Theatre's production of “Inherit the Wind”.  Before each show, we do make it a point to tell people to turn off their cell phones, to avoid using flash photography, to be quiet, and to keep purses, hands, feet, and children out of the aisles.  Nonetheless, during one performance, there was a couple who brought a 2-3 year old child that they could not keep quiet, nor keep out of the aisles.  During intermission, a member of the tech crew complained to me, so I sat by them and kept an eye on it.  Halfway through the second act, they got up and left, much to my (and the audience’s) relief.

Now, this is not to say that I don’t love kids.  I worked with kids for a number of years.  Kids are great.  But if you, as a parent, cannot keep control of them – or if you know that your child is too young to have the attention span to keep quiet in a show – then maybe it is best not to bring them.

And people don’t make these rules up just to be jerks.  Whether the rules make sense to everyone or not, they are most often there for a reason.  Talking loudly and texting IS a distraction, in both live theatre and cinema.  It distracts both your fellow patrons AND also, in the case of live theatre, the performers – who are working their butts off to give you and the other patrons the best possible performance they can.  Leaving your huge purse in the aisle, or just letting your child lay in the middle of it, is dangerous for your fellows in the audience.  In the case of live theatre, it is also dangerous for tech crew who are moving around during the show, and to performers who may be trying to make an exit/entrance through the aisles.

I've witnessed this lack of respect for rules in the professional environment as well.  I work in a call center as a telemarketer.  It is the company’s strict policy that no cell phones are permitted anywhere in the building.  It might seem a little harsh, but there’s a reason for it:  it is a fairly well-known fact that in the past decade, cameras – cameras that record both still photos and video – have become standard features on most cell phones.  Our center has many different sales campaigns that operate out of it, all of which deal with a large volume of highly sensitive personal information in one respect or another.  This poses a security risk, because we do not want any pictures to get out of any of this personal information, either deliberately or inadvertently.  This is why cell phones are not supposed to be allowed in the building, and this is why it is company policy that having a cell phone in the building is grounds for termination.

All the same, my supervisor called our entire unit up one day this past week, giving us a lecture because she had found THREE of us within the unit with cell phones at their desks. Keep in mind that this was also on a day when we had executives from one of our campaigns in the building!

All I could do was shake my head at the stupidity, and I recalled a few instances that occurred when I worked in daycare.  As I imagine is the case in most states, all daycare centers in the state of Indiana MUST be licensed by the Indiana Family and Social Services Adminstration (known colloquially in daycare circles as “State”) in order to keep operating.  In order to obtain and keep its license, a center must be inspected annually by State, and comply to each and every regulation given by State.  State has regulations for everything – from what kinds of toys should be available and always accessible for each age group, right down to the exact procedure for changing a diaper.  And each of these regulations must be strictly followed.

The point I’m trying to get to is that even my boss at the daycare didn’t agree with each and every regulation given by State. But she understood that State had reasons for these regulations, and if she wanted to keep her center open, she had to make sure that we complied.

So rules aren’t there just so that people can go on power trips and spoil your fun.  There are reasons for them.  So respect them.  If you can’t do that, you can find the door.