Seeking out that movie theater focus elsewhere
One of our favorite pastimes is watching movies. On average we see about one in the theater a month, and watch between four and seven at home a week. Ha, of course you guys know I love the movies – we even hosted an Oscars party this year!
Movies we’ve seen in 2014 (not pictured: The Lego Movie, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Divergent, Lucy).
So this week, we were watching the DVD of a movie we saw earlier in the year at the theater. I was excited to get the DVD, because I really enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it.
Gah! Instead, at home, I found myself bored and restless, playing on my phone, thinking about other things I needed to do.
Have you ever liked a movie more in the theater than on DVD? Or the other way around?
The thing is – I still liked the film. I just have a really hard time unplugging at home, to watch a film and fully immerse myself in it, like I can in the theater.
It’s that damn phone. And my lack of self control, of course.
I started thinking – what other places, besides the theater, do I absolutely pay 100% attention to what is going on and ignore my phone? Hmm… most meals out (except the horrible habit of using my phone as a watch), plays/concerts, sometimes in work training, um, on an airplane before they changed that rule, during most of my runs (but not all of it), when I’m with a friend (or friends) or family… yeah. That’s a short list.
If movies seem better because I’m fully paying attention to them, I gotta imagine most things in life would be, too. I need to seek out that movie theater focus elsewhere (but not the crappy parts of the movie theater experience, ha!).
Ha ha, this post makes it sound like I’m addicted to my phone. I’m not. I usually use it the most when I’m alone and spend the majority of my time on Duolingo and in Feedly (I don’t have personal Facebook on my phone). When I’m with people I try not to look at it (or excuse myself to respond to a text). Cause… why be with people if you’re all going to be looking at your phones? So I guess what I need to work on is using my phone so much at home! Need to be more serious about the “family time” rule!
Themocracy
Ha ha, I get the movie thing! I LOVE movies, and so does my Dad. Unfortunately when Heather moved away I lost my movie buddy. Paul just doesn’t enjoy movies as much–he considers it a waste of time and money if he doesn’t know it’s going to be “good.” (but it is fun to introduce him to movies I love that he’s never seen and ends up loving as well!!)
We have started leaving our phones at home when we go out to eat. I really think it is just a reflexive habit at this point to scroll through FB and Pinterest and blogs or whatever.
Great points. It’s rare now that I completely put away my phone. My husband used to get aggravated with me and the kids. But now, he is just as bad…or worse. I guess we were bad influences.
Funny, I notice a lot of kids (like, little kids) are really fascinated by phones. And then I went to visit a couple friends in Madison and noticed their kids had no interest whatsoever in phones. Then I put two and two together and realized the adults hardly ever had their phones out. So, the kids weren’t conditioned that it was something cool the grown-ups played with all the time. Really eye-opening for me.
This is such a pertinent post for how I’ve been feeling lately. I’ve been really paying attention not only to how much I am focused on my phone, as well as people I see walking in the hall at work, etc. EVERYONE is always looking down…at their phones! I wrote an article about this a couple years ago, and since then the focus on our phones has only gotten worse. Although it’s great being able to connect with others so quickly, it seems so many other connections are lost because of technology. Great post, Kim.
I was riding the train recently and was at the top of the car and looked down and about 75% of the people were using their phones. Granted, it was the quiet car and people are not supposed to interact with others there, but it was just like, WOW!
ha! you are right the phone is a big distraction. I leave mine in another room at night when I am trying to read and when I go to bed. I don’t want to know if it beeps lol My hubby and I really enjoy going to the theater together 🙂 We saw Mockingjay and Horrible Bosses recently…loved them both.
I am not there yet, but I turn my upside down (and always have it on silent) so I don’t see it light up in the bedroom. Ha ha, baby steps, right?
Yay! Another movie fan!
hmmm what was that ? Sorry, just checking my phone … 😉
We rarely go to theaters, mainly because of our schedules and our kids’ activities and so on. So by the time we have the chance to go see something (we have a few mmovies we get to, like Gone Girl this year) we might as well wait and rent it on Amazon. So at that point, we cook up popcorn and give ourselves the movie experience! That sometimes includes putting my phone in ‘do not disturb’ mode.
But watching random TV shows it takes more effort to leave the phone alone. Unless I am really into the show …
I have a really, really, really hard time sitting and watching a movie and not doing something else. I like to look at a magazine, do a crossword, check Facebook or words with Friends, etc. But, in a movie theater, I don’t do any of those things, so I do concentrate more. But, I sort of get bored if the movie isn’t really captivating. I like to watch movies with good special effects in the theater. Movies like the new Star Wars, etc. are so much better on the big screen!
We used to have a rule to only watch those movies in the theater, because of the cost of tickets! Now that we have a $5 (any movie) night out here, we are more lenient. I find that I just pay more attention in the theater though, even if it’s a so so movie!
I’ve noticed that too–being on my phone while watching TV. I go to a friend’s house for “knitting and TV” night once a week, and while I’m there, I’m intentional about putting my phone in my bag so it’s not a distraction. But then I noticed my friends checking their phones the whole time the show was on, so it seemed silly that we were even watching the show together at all!
A few times that I’ve been to the movies recently, Harrison has said something like, “Ugh, that kid behind us was talking so loudly!” and I don’t even know what he’s talking about because I’ve been so focused on the movie. (And vice versa, I’ve noticed/been distracted by things that don’t even register with him.)
I forgot you were doing Duolingo (or maybe I didn’t know?). That’s awesome!
Yes! That! Why are we together if we are checking our phones?! Quite a bit this weekend, I left my phone in another room (I did have some time on the iPad and my computer though – I am not perfect), and I liked that 🙂
Gosh, I am like Harrison, I wish I could focus in even more like you can! Noise really distracts me.
Yeah! I am on a 90 day streak! LOL 🙂
I am so jealous of all your movie going. We used to go to the movies a lot pre-baby but we have been to 1 movie in the past 3 years (and it was just a few weeks ago!) We have Netflix so we watch a ton of movies at home but I just love going to the theater!