People Should Be Allowed to Have Cell Phones in Public Movie Theaters

Thanks Reid for accepting this! Let's have a fun debate.==Con Opening Statement==Ever had a great movie ruined by that one person chattering away on their phone at the worst possible time? I will present three arguments to show that people should not be allowed to have cell phones in public movie theaters.Before I begin, I would like to point out that people go to the movie theater to watch a movie. Therefore, a typical moviegoer’s sole purpose of going to the theater is to enjoy a movie. I will argue that cell phones severely detract from a moviegoer’s enjoyment and make the trip to the movie theater meaningless.Contention 1: Cell phones create noise and encourage talking.There are several ways in which cell phones create unnecessary noise. The first is by ringing – if a person has their cell phone on in the movie theater and someone calls him or her, the cell phone will sound, startling the other moviegoers. Since people often have their cell phone ring volumes turned up high to hear the phone when it rings, the ringing cell phone may very likely drown out the sound from the movie. This is both a distracting and unpleasant experience for other moviegoers, and can also be embarrassing for the owner of the cell phone.Once the call goes through, the owner of the cell phone, if not thoroughly chastised by the loud ringtone, will begin a conversation with the caller. It is nearly impossible to be quiet in an otherwise silent movie theater (other than the movie) when trying to talk on the phone, even more so than trying to have a conversation with someone next to you. Over the phone, particularly a cell phone, it is hard to make out clearly the voice on the other side, and as such, people need to talk more loudly over the phone than with people at their side. [1]Noise like ringtones or talking on cell phones can ruin the movie, as we see from [2]. By creating noise and encouraging loud talking, cell phones are extremely detrimental to a moviegoer’s experience. But what if the owner of the cell phone has the ringtone on vibrate and is merely texting, instead of talking? This leads in to my next argument.Contention 2: Cell phone screens create distracting white glare.Imagine sitting next to someone in the movie theater who was pointing a flashlight in your face for two hours. That’s what it’s like to have someone next to you texting through an entire movie. Cell phone screens are made to be bright and readable, not very good attributes for the dark movie theater, and light up the theater like “pesky fireflies”. [3] This is one part of the cell phone that simply cannot be hidden if the phone is on – a texter needs to see the screen to text. Other activities, like checking e-mail or posting on Facebook, also require nearby moviegoers to be blinded. While the owner of the cell phone may be oblivious, magnetized to his or her glowing screen, others will have a hard time trying to ignore the bright light and regaining their night vision after the brilliant flash of the screen constricts their pupils. Without having to compete with bright cell phone screens, the movie can properly be enjoyed by the viewers. But prohibiting cell phones from being turned on the movie theater not only protects other moviegoers, but potential cell phone users as well.Contention 3: Restricting cell phone use protects potential cell phone users.As we see from [4], people tend to become irritated when someone is answering his or her cell phone in the middle of something – for instance, a movie. Although this may not typically reach the point of tackling the offender to the ground, the risk is still there. By restricting cell phone use, movie theaters prevent moviegoers from putting themselves in harm’s way.Thank you and I await Pro’s response.Sources:[1] http://www.switched.com...[2] http://youtu.be...[3] http://www.wtop.com...[4] http://youtu.be...