Kate Emery: Please put your phone away in the cinema and enjoy the film

To yearn for a communal experience is human. To take out your phone in the cinema is unkind. My knee-jerk response to the number of people sharing photos and videos from their cinema screenings of Wicked: Part 1 online was that we, as a species, have lost our way. Are we really so obsessed with documenting our lives online that this is the new normal? If we experience a thing and nobody knows, did it not still happen? And most important of all: am I going to keep asking rhetorical questions or do I have a point? I do have a point and my point is this: taking your phone out mid-movie to film or photograph a movie in progress is rude and disrespectful, not just to your fellow cinemagoers but the the filmmakers themselves. Nobody wants their screening of anything to include the light from your phone screen or be obscured by your hand as you take a shaky video or blurry photo in an effort to hoover up likes online from strangers on the internet. One social media post said: “I’m sorry but I HAD to record the final scene of wicked”, accompanied by a shaky video of the film’s climactic scene, which has since been removed for copyright infringement. You really didn’t. Another urged followers to “show ur ‘wicked part 1’ photosss [sic]”, alongside a screenshot of the opening credits. Please, no. The idea that buying a cinema ticket entitles you to do what you like in the theatre is absurd. Cinema audiences are there to see the movie, not be unwilling extras in your attempts at online engagement. Unlike most social media trends, which baffle my geriatric millennial brain, this one I can at least understand. What those posting their low-res content online are chasing is the pleasure of communal experience. Art is often best experienced with others. This is why fan groups exist, it’s why terrible films like The Room do good business with hate watch screenings. It’s why I have found myself begging friends to read this book or see that movie so I can talk to them about it immediately. There’s not enough communal art experiences since streaming splintered TV audiences and decimated cinematic ones. Gone are the (possibly mythical) days when offices came to a standstill around the water cooler so everyone could discuss the episode of something they all watched the night before at the except same time because of an utter dearth of options. But breaching copyright law is not the answer. The cinema is already a communal experience between you and the others in the room with you. Being part of that comes with rights and responsibilities. The former does not include treating the cinema like your living room, while the latter does include not being a selfish d...head.