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

I will address my opponents rebuttal and attack on my case using common sense and pure logic. "Observation: My opponent says that I assume people will always be sitting next to each other in the theater and that therefore many of my arguments are invalid; however, this is not the case. First, while there may be empty movie theaters, many are packed full. [1] Since both scenarios exist, we cannot just assume the theater to be mostly empty. Second, even if a movie theater is mostly empty, the problems with noise caused by cell phones still stand because sounds from one section of a movie theater can be heard from far away." The phone being set to vibrate is enforced my theater workers and again have the right to remove someone if they are distracting and being rude to others. Vibrating causes no excessive noise, and because of this, the noise factor my opponent brings up within this debate can not be weighed. "Contention 1, Subpoint A: I agree that the ringer can be set to vibrate to prevent loud ringtones. However, not everyone remembers to set their phone on vibrate. Phone-ringing episodes like the one in [2], in which a man's phone went off in a Seattle theater, still happen, and are still disruptions to other movie viewers." He sites a source along with that one that a man was thrown out of a theater for simply being a distraction. The same thing could have happened to the fellow in Seattle for not muting his cell phone. All phones have this option and can easily be enforced. "My opponent says that people can simply respond to any phone calls with a text back. I would like to ask my opponent: how exactly does this work? There are two scenarios here. Scenario 1: You pick up the phone and say nothing, for fear of other movie patrons being annoyed. The caller is confused and the message is not relayed. Scenario 2: In order to stop the phone from ringing, you press the "Ignore". The offended caller hangs up and the message is not relayed." Phones have the option to ignore calls by simply clicking a "Respond with text" that simply says "I am too busy to answer the phone, send me a message." The receiver of the text can then wait until the movie is done, or leave into the hall to address the message. Again, the phone is silent, no ringing issue is made. His subpoint B questions the cell phone users willingness to dim the screen brightness and then proceeds with the "loud ringtone" argument. Once again: 1. Phone is silenced, no sound issue. 2. The appropriate authority figures within the theaters can assess the situation is the person is found causing this issue. Contention 2 simply says, "there is not enough people to police the entire audience, so it is not a case of ignoring but being unable to fulfill the option." People have the ability to report these issues. That ability is not taken away at ALL. Lastly, he provides an example of a man choking another about the phone ringing. Once again, the man had the ability to go to the authority figure and ask him to deal with this. It is not my fault that this individual over reacted and ignored his options. I will provide benefits to allowing cell phones in a theater. 1. It allows the person to respond to emergency situations by simply standing up, and exiting the theater door to answer the call. With the phone on silence, and low brightness, this causes minimal distractions and avoids individuals from freaking out. 2. For people who regularly get business calls, they are able to enjoy the movie and be able to appropriately respond to calls with a text or, once again, getting up and leaving the movie to answer it. 3. If individuals were not allowed to have them, then that must mean a type of search on the individual to make sure they do not have a phone, or "cell jamming device" be implemented in every theater, which would not be cheap for every movie theater to establish. 1. Noise factor is eliminated. 2. Brightness factor is eliminated. 3. Risk factor is eliminated.