Looking at Phones During a Movie – Is There a Right Time?

To many people, the idea of looking at your phone during a movie or TV show is downright heresy. After all, why bother watching something in the first place if you’re just going to do something else the entire time? However, since there are plenty of people who do it, there must be a counterargument. Expanding your perspective might introduce you to some occasions when this is more acceptable, or at least times when it makes more sense than others.

Different people enjoy content differently, and furthermore, not everyone looks to get the same experience out of something like a movie to begin with – leading to different viewing styles.

Rewatch/To Relax

An obvious example is when the movie is only on to unwind to in the first place. Envision this: you come home after a long day of work, you put on a familiar favorite, you slump on the sofa, and you scroll through your phone while the comforting and familiar sounds of a movie you love playing in the background. This is about creating an atmosphere more than watching a movie, one that emphasizes relaxation above all else.

There might be no particular activity in mind here. You could be scrolling through your phone, answering messages, or taking care of random admin. Alternatively, though, your phone could be containing the primary activity, and you might find yourself visiting the best online casinos Australia to play the games that you’ve been looking forward to all day with some comfortable background viewing.

In the Theatre?

This is one that most people are going to unanimously agree on as being a time when looking at your phone is unacceptable. It’s something that can distract other people who are also in the theatre, impacting an experience that they also paid for, but it can additionally remove the point of going to such an environment in the first place. There are also concerns about piracy here, which might further persuade people that there is no place for a phone here.

Of course, there are always going to be exceptions – there will be emergencies that require your attention, though some would suggest that you take that outside of the viewing area itself – or it might be something less severe, like trying to inform your late-to-arrive friends where you’re sat.

Movies on the Phone

An obvious exception that might be jumping out at you here could be if the movie is playing on the phone in the first place. A loophole, surely? Well, while some would accept that, others might suggest that the phone is no way to view a movie at all – despite all the ways in which that’s been made possible through streaming services. While you might lose a certain amount of detail that filmmakers have put into the framing of any given scene, that might be an acceptable price to pay for some people who feel as though this is the perfect way to pass time on a flight. What you might be more concerned about, however, is the effect that this can have on your eyes over time.