Allow me to put forth a utopian proposition. We have reached a tipping point in the problem of sociopaths using their smartphones while attending public performances.<\/p>\n
Future generations will find the notion of texting at the cinema or theatre as unacceptable as we now regard smoking in such places. In further naive speculation, every cyclist will stop at every red light and actual human beings will rapidly answer the phones at all public utilities.<\/p>\n
The tipping-point bit does, on cursory examination, sound plausible. People are always whinging about punters using their phones inappropriately, but the rush of such stories has, in recent weeks, been overwhelming.<\/p>\n
You may have read about the actor Rosamund Pike<\/a> haranguing an audience member after a performance of Inter Alia in the West End of London. \u201cSomebody was texting in this part,\u201d she said, gesturing vaguely. \u201cYou know who you are and I\u2019m not going to single you out.\u201d (It could be worse. Two years ago Andrew Scott called out a groundling for using a laptop during the Irishman\u2019s performance of Hamlet.)<\/p>\n Then there was the singer Phoebe Bridgers<\/a> announcing, this week, that, during her upcoming European tour, which hits Dublin in November, the use of mobile electronic devices will be strictly prohibited. A statement explained that \u201call phones, smartwatches and related accessories\u201d would be \u201csecured in pouches\u201d.<\/p>\n Less publicised was a slightly chilling incident during the final of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield last month. The referee, Rob Spencer, a former police officer of forbidding aspect, had, after an earlier incident, warned the audience that \u201cif a phone goes off and the security team see whose phone it is, you will be asked to leave\u201d. <\/p>\n Two frames later, as Shaun Murphy addressed the cue ball, chimes echoed from a punter\u2019s pocket or handbag. Spencer identified the culprit with a terse \u201cOut, please. Out, go, out.\u201d<\/p>\n I say \u201cchilling\u201d because, though one obviously applauds the zero-tolerance policy, one can\u2019t pretend it\u2019s inconceivable that \u2013 after, maybe, pressing the wrong button \u2013 this is an error any one of us might have made. It would be some punishment to have our shuffling exit broadcast to millions as we walked the gauntlet of hissing snooker enthusiasts.<\/p>\n