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

Thanks for the prompt reply!==Con Rebuttal==I will address my opponent’s arguments and then show why mine hold. I accept my opponent’s definitions for this debate.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.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.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.In both, you could have just turned the phone off in the first place. You don’t know what the call was about, so how can you text a reply back? You might have a third option of letting the call go to your voicemail, but if your phone is ringing in the middle of a silent theater, do you let it ring? The suggestion of texting the caller back is impractical. Texting still does not solve the problem of bright cell phone screens.Subpoint B: I would like to point out two things. First, be honest, do you dim your phone screen before the beginning of a movie to text during the movie? People are reminded to silence their cell phones, but not to dim cell phone screens. Second, in the dark movie theater, even a dimmed screen will seem bright. Text messaging may be silent, but is equally annoying as loud ringtones. [3]Contention 2: My opponent says that people choose to ignore the option of removing people from theaters, but people have actually been removed from movie theaters before for distracting activities like texting during a movie. [4] There are often not enough personnel to police the entire audience, so it is not a case of ignoring the option but being unable to fulfill the option.For my own case, I have re-affirmed my 1st and 2nd contentions in my responses to my opponent’s 1st contention. Many people forget to put their phone on vibrate and must answer the call, causing noise. Cell phone screens are not dim in dark movie theaters and can be just as annoying as noise. My third contention is unaddressed. The possibility of being attacked by other movie patrons may be slim but is solid. In the phone-ringing incident in Seattle, an irritated patron attempted to choke the phone’s owner. [2] We see clearly that allowing cell phones creates embarrassment and poses danger to potential users of cell phones.My opponent provides no benefits of allowing cell phones. Do two hours of no texting do any harm? Since allowing cell phones in movie theaters is much more detrimental than beneficial, cell phones should not be allowed. Please look to the Con side of this debate.Sources: [1] http://www.movietickets.com... [2] http://www.king5.com... [3] http://www.puremobile.com... [4] http://www.guardian.co.uk...