If you know anything about me, you'll know that I’m most likely to be found either in the cinema or at a gig.
There’s nothing better than a movie on opening weekend, a festival in the sun, a reshowing of a classic or just someone in a pub corner with their guitar – if it’s movies or music, I don’t care the genre or space, I’ll be there.
However, it’s getting harder to ignore the fact that Irish crowds are growing increasingly apathetic towards the experiences they are paying for.
It seems now that every trip to the cinema means you’re expecting to be interrupted by the bright lights of peoples' phone screens and the sounds of their ringers going off.
I’ve witnessed everything from people checking messages to scrolling through Instagram stories - even taking phone calls - and I’m left wondering when did we all stop caring about infringing on the people around us?
show ur "wicked part 1" photosss pic.twitter.com/TkV2S4insa
— nat (@nat_dwbua_) November 24, 2024
A growing social media trend is for people to post the title cards of the film they're watching – most recently popularised by Wicked, where seemingly everyone who went had to whip their phones out to grab a video of the (already heavily shared) opening.
Those on X and TikTok may argue that just like everyone else, they’ve paid for their ticket and have the right to do whatever they wish once inside the cinema - which famously is not how cinemas have ever worked, but that seems to be a long-forgotten point at this stage.
I’m left wondering why would you want to? The point of going to the cinema is to be completely transported from whatever is happening outside. When you take your phone out and disrupt the audience, you’re taking away from that experience for everyone in the room – and it’s not about "can" you check your phone, but why would you even want to?
When did we all decide that public events were individual experiences?
Of course it Isn't just the cinema that’s fallen victim to this kind of apathy. The concert-going experience is something that has changed drastically in the last few years. The 3Olympia in Dublin has been a favourite venue of mine and so many others for years now, often managing to host major international acts in a venue that still feels intimate. But the relatively small capacity, matched with uncaring audiences, has made it more and more difficult to enjoy gigs there, as the artists are drowned out by audiences often more happy to chat to each other than actually listen to a band.
Seeing Kneecap there last year I expected an enthusiastic crowd, ready to get stuck in, singing along and getting generally involved in what can only be descibed as an event. Instead, we found ourselves encircled by men discussing their plans for the week and girls more concerned with recording themselves screaming than paying attention to what was actually going on on-stage.
What if that’s just the crowd the band attracts? Well two weeks ago I was back to see Maverick Sabre in the same venue, which may as well have been a podcast recording because all I could hear for the majority of the setlist was the chatter of the crowd around me, only met with a brief silence for his biggest hit. Are we now at a stage where we only expect crowds to only be quiet for the most popular songs? Gigs are only getting more expensive, and if I’m showing up I want to hear everything - not just the tunes you’ve come across on your Spotify Recommends playlist.
"Okay, Tommy", I can hear you say, "maybe you’ve just become old and curmudgeonly" - and while I’d like to argue the point, the evidence for thinking it is pretty well laid out above. So hearing that, I take myself to see An Evening With Jason Isbell – a quieter gig in Vicar St with an older demographic expected to be in attendance. As you walk into the gig, you’re reminded by security, ushers, signs all over the venue and a pre-show announcement that this will be - at the request of the artist himself - a no-phones gig. Peace at last… Or so you might think. The room in total darkness, the performer on stage accompanied only an acoustic guitar, halfway through his first song... and out come the phones again, one recording with a full flash on, intent to get a grainy video with poor sound that you’ll never watch again even if it does annoy the whole room, performer included.
When did we all decide that public events were individual experiences? I’m loath to blame everything on Covid, but it does feel like we’ve still not re-learned how to properly behave in public. And look, I don’t want to sound like a total buzzkill – I’m all for a sing-along at a gig or a hearty laugh in a cinema - but we’ve reached a breaking point. There comes a time where we have to cop on to the way our behaviour impacts the people in the room with us. Concerts and gigs and theatres are not cheap nights out, and I just don’t think it would hurt for us to have a little respect for the people around us and the performers on stage. And look, if you really can’t go without checking your phone for 90 minutes, that's why you can get Netflix and Spotify in your sitting room…
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
