Everyone knows phones are an irritation when combined with movies. Have one go off in a packed cinema become a social pariah, while the light from that idiot two rows ahead checking Facebook makes focusing on the screen (which both of you have paid to specifically look at) impossible. The real impact of using a phone during a film, however, is on you, the one who's actually using it. Whenever you stop paying attention to the film to look at your device you're not only missing some of the action, but you're pulling yourself out of the on screen world, making what could be a really intense film appear confusing. Films with fast-paced, intricately plotted stories require an audience's full attention - this is probably why so many people found Inception and Source Code confusing - while checking that text in the middle of Gravity will only destroy the tension that Alfonso Cuarón has been carefully building up. This is why being able to watch films on a myriad of devices - phones, tablets, probably watches soon - isn't the future of movies it's so often praised as being; is 12 Years A Slave going to be as effecting when you're pausing every second to check Candy Crush? What can you do: Turn your phone off. That hilarious Snapchat will be there when the film's finished.
