This afternoon I went to first showing of the afternoon of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.” About ten minutes before the scheduled start of the trailers ahead of the movie, I entered the theater seating about 300 — one of seven in the multiplex on Third Avenue at 86th Street in Manhattan. The screen was dark and the theater about half filled, mostly with teenagers. As I came down the darkened aisle from the back I noticed the rows were dotted with little lights, which were the screens of mobile devices the kids were using as they waited for things to start happening on the screen.
A major excuse given for prohibiting students from bringing their mobiles into schools is that the kids will use them to disrupt class time. The deportment of the same age group that is not trusted by schools was certainly not a problem today. The little screens were turned off when the entertainment began and there was no sound from any of the devices that interrupted the movie. This group of young people demonstrated that they use their mobiles a lot — and that they can resist interrupting when that is appropriate. Sure, Batman is more interesting than school work usually is, but maybe by using the mobiles for some of the education activities we can make that more interesting for this generation.
It is interesting too that trust sells movie tickets — as two ferryboats full of people demonstrate in this movie that is a huge hit with teenagers.
July 29th, 2008 at 2:45 am