The Split Second-In Consideration of Others in These Trying Times or Look Up from the Phone

Here I go again: I am still trying to get my unpublished book “The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others” published. I am wondering if I should change the focus of the book to deal with the rudeness of many in society with their cell phones and nothing else.

I am in wonderful New York City enjoying yet another vacation, primarily focused on seeing Broadway shows, which usually thrill me a great deal. However, after two shows, I am dismayed at how people can ruin the performance for others by insisting on taking out their phones. At the first show, which is slated to win the Tony Award for Best Play, audience members’ cell phones played a significant role in the performance, unfortunately. There were several “dings” during the performance and one phone rang twice. It was obvious that it was the same phone. The gentleman next to me did not turn off his phone and flipped it over several times, I am guessing, to see if he had messages. I might add here that after the intermission, several audience members came back to their seats five and ten minutes after the second act began. I was amazed that the actors could go with the performance. I will admit some people are not distracted by this rude behavior. I am. I might mention that it was printed in the program (Playbill) that phones need to be turned off COMPLETELY!

While at the second show, which has Hillary Rodham Clinton as a producer, one woman and one man seated three rows in front of me insisted upon taking their phones out many times during the first act to record what was going on in the show. This has been illegal in times past. During that act, several ushers came to the woman who was on the aisle, and I must think they were telling her she could not record the show or even take her phone out.

But clearly, she took the attitude of “I’m going to do it anyway even though I have been told that I can’t.” I find this cell phone behavior in legitimate theatres deplorable. There is too much of “I am going to do what I want to do when I want to do it” with no consideration of anyone else in the theatre. It can be a GREAT distraction to others.

My book is about thoughtfulness for others. Many have told me that this is slipping away in society. I believe that we can truly become a society where we can all think of others as we “go out in the world.”  It must start somewhere.