What is wrong with people?

[clovishound]

The Pup and I went to see James Taylor tonight. Bonnie Raitt wasn't there due to a medical issue, but Taylor definitely stepped up and gave us our money's worth.

What really struck me was looking at the crowd during the concert, there were an awful lot of people that were on their smart phones during the concert. Yes, I know that some were taking pictures/video, but when the screen is white for minutes on end, they are checking Twitter or Facebook, or whatever.

I just can't wrap my mind around paying, in some cases a couple hundred bucks a seat, for a concert from a world class talent, and then spend part of your time on your phone. That doesn't even touch on the fact that it is disrespectful to the performers and rude to the people around you.

It's an addiction.

Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, we had a great time.

[Bugs]

The Zombies are real and they are already here.

[daytime dave]

Glad you had a good time. People are crazy. Sounds like it was a good time.

[BrokenolMarine]

It's one of the reasons we haven't been to a movie theater in fifteen years. When I watch a movie, I don't want the folks around me yelling at the actors on the screen, describing the entire movie to a friend via their cell phone, bringing their infant to the movies to save the cost of a sitter... or a bored ten year old kicking the back of my seat for two hours.

So, we wait six months, buy the BluRay and watch it at home.

[North Country Gal]

It's a generation thing. The only movies we go to see in the theater are "Senior Friday" runs where we can get tickets at half price. Trust me, these things don't happen with a theatre full of seniors.

[clovishound]

It's a generation thing. The only movies we go to see in the theater are "Senior Friday" runs where we can get tickets at half price. Trust me, these things don't happen with a theatre full of seniors.

I would like to say that folks of my generation are immune to this. The sad truth is the lady in front of us at the concert was at least my age (I'm in my 60s). She was one of the ones on her cell a fair amount during the performance. I was close enough to see that she was texting/tweeting some of the time, taking pictures some the time as well. When she was texting/tweeting, the bright white screen less than 10 feet away in a darkened arena was very distracting. In fact her phone use was what clued me in to how many were doing this during the concert.

[BrokenolMarine]

Years ago, we were bemoaning the fact that we were going to have to wait to see a movie that we really wanted to see... and a friend suggested that we go in the middle of the week and go to the first showing, at just after noon... "The dang theaters are empty." she said. "Everyone is at work, or school and you'll have the place to yourself."

So, the wife and I went to lunch, then at 1pm we headed out to a 14 screen mini-plex. Each small theater had only about 200 seats and the midday first showing was discounted and as we walked into the lobby, there were only about ten couples in the place. With fourteen screens, we were hopeful our luck would hold.

We got our tickets and headed to our theater and ... Geez, empty. We found our seats, in the upper third of the theater, in the middle of the row, and settled in to watch the ads and the previews, about twenty minutes before the scheduled start of the movie. Two minutes before the start of the show, one other couple comes into the darkened theater. They pause at the top of the slope and the husband tells the wife to choose her seat. She looks around... and come and sits DIRECTLY in front of us. Not a couple rows down in the empty theater, DIRECTLY in front of Tina.

Tina says, "Oh H**** No."

The wife turns to say something back but the husband grabs her and drags her out of the row and toward the exit.
I hear him say to her, "You had the whole d*** theater, you had to SIT directly in front of the only two people in the place!"

We stayed for the movie but the mood was ruined... Tina was angry thru the whole thing. We haven't been back again.
I have heard similar things from others going to the midday showings. Some folks just LIKE to stir the pot.

[Sir Henry]

Last summer I went to an outdoor concert which doesn't allow lawn chairs other than those short ones where you are two inches off the ground. One older couple brought in regular lawn chairs that had a sun shade and set right in front of us. The place was about half filled and they had to set somewhere. Fine with them sitting in front of us but not with the chairs. We asked them to comply with the rules and they refused. A quick chat with security and they told the people they couldn't use the chairs. They were older and "needed" them for medical reasons thinking they were going to get away with it. Security told them they had a special place for them and I later saw them behind the sound and lights tower where they couldn't see a thing.

[Abnermal]

I have worked with the public for almost 50 years and have witnessed the degeneration of the American public. Serving the public has never been easy but the last 10 years or so have been sheer misery. Everyone is interested only in instant self gratification. Instead of all for one it has become who can I screw and how hard. If God will give me one more year of sanity I'm going to hang it up. A rocking chair and a kitty await me! There- rant over. Now I feel much better!

[CT_Shooter]

...Everyone is interested only in instant self gratification. Instead of all for one it has become who can I screw and how hard.

This isn't anything like the community I know and have known for most of my life. For the last 32 years, I've lived in a small New England town where the people are still friendly, generous, and caring. We have a volunteer fire department, a part-time two man police force, a volunteer EMT and ambulance that answered my midnight call three times during the last year of my wife's life, and I have neighbors who help whenever they can. My next door neighbor has voluntarily mowed my lawn twice this season because I was being treated for a bad back. I'm pretty lucky.

I do realize that there are people in this country who can be harsh; building walls and fences; seeking vengeance and revenge; stealing instead of sharing; suspicious instead of trusting; demanding instead of generous; self-important rather than humble; self-righteous instead of tolerant; bigoted and judgmental. They often fill the nightly newscasts and 24 hour cable news. But, thankfully, they're not living here -- at least, not that I can tell. I'm pretty lucky.