Study Shows Theatergoers Really Want To Text During Movies
It's obvious social media dictates how we live our lives. Facebook and Twitter (the two most prominent social-media tools) play important roles in many of our day-to-day decisions, including how we entertain ourselves and what we do while being entertained. Now a new report conducted by The Hollywood Reporter and Penn Schoen Berland backs up that notion with data that could upset a lot of movie fans.
The social media report studies how Facebook and Twitter influence our entertainment options and choices. The results are eye-opening. For example, would you have guessed that 88% of the people polled consider visiting Twitter and Facebook to be a form of entertainment? Or how about the fact that 79% percent of distracted television viewers visit Facebook while they watch TV?
But here’s the back-breaker, if you are a frequent movie-theater patron: 55% percent of moviegoers admit that they have texted during a movie. In addition, the study claims that “a majority of 18-to-34-year-olds believe using social media while watching a movie in a theater would add to their experience, and nearly half would be interested in going to theaters that allowed texting and web surfing.”
“Millennials want their public moviegoing experience to replicate their own private media experiences,” Penn said.
Welcome to the future, where movie theaters likely will have workstations with laptops or iPads so patrons can interact during a film. Can the Alamo Drafthouse get on this, because they’ve perfected the art of eating during a movie (though higher-up at the Drafthouse definitely frown on texting or talking during their screenings).
The study does in-depth research into social media recommendations driving users to check out new TV shows and theatrical films. But the bomb seems to be the demand for open social media practices in multiplexes. Do you agree? Or would such a movie force you to stay home and watch a movie on your own television screen … where you’d probably be surfing Twitter or texting your friends during the screening.