i am sooo getting one of those cell phone jammers that gabriele360 suggested. but will it be inconsiderate to texters at concerts if i use it?

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4355

Standing next to someone at a bus stop or in line for a short few in OPEN AIR isn’t going to give ANY bystander lung cancer. Repeated and consistent exposure to second-hand smoke under other circumstances is another issue entirely.

The analogy is about rules put in place for the comfort of patrons in an certain kind of area where they must share a space. Incidentally, breathing the air in Los Angeles, particularly OUTDOORS near the 101 fwy, is a larger contributor to cancer than secondhand smoke on the street. And no, I don’t smoke. Hate the things. But anything which ruins an experience for other people that they have a right to expect a certain kind of experience for, i.e. hear music/breathe, is an ANNOYANCE; it needn’t be cancer-causing to be prohibited or strongly discouraged.

But you’ve stated you vote for unfettered cel use by everyone at Bowl concerts and it’s the others who have a problem, so there you go. We just disagree on several things.

At least you DID find it rude behaviour that some “assholes” got up and left after the one Brubeck song they wanted to hear. We’re in agreement on that one–as Brubeck would be, too, I’d guess.

is that a better analogy?

People texting near you in the dark = annoyance

Perhaps a better analogy is called for.

The fact is there have always been people-always-who’ll push it and do whatever they think they can get away with. When I was a kid not that many eaons ago movie theaters’ ushers were often older(paid better), and the better chains and independent theaters–the Chinese, the ones in Westwood, etc.–were pretty strict about intervening when anyone-kid or adult-was simply talking too much and disturbing a patron enough that they’d get up and complain to the management.

Result? Talking during a movie or concert or ballet etc. wasn’t even close to being as ubiquitous as it is now everywhere all the time. As theaters got cheaper and became megaplexes where there were too many shows for ushers to bother monitoring, not only theater-hopping became common but so did pretty much behaving as if the place was one’s private living room, others be damned. In fact, how dare they expect any kind of consideration from you? Screw ‘em.

So it is with texting. But like smoking near others (which for years was simply obnoxious and annoying to nonsmokers nearby, so could be done without fear of getting busted) texting isn’t illegal and it isn’t yet an act that will get the person embarrassed. Which, if they’re in a darkened theater where other people can see the light on the screen, they should be.
It’s never going to be okay to basically not give a damn if you’re annoying other people at a group event, not even ONE other person. And if “everyone” really did it then the entire damned theater would be totally aglow, but that’s not the case–it’s usually just a few, a minority of arrogant and entitled and oblivious people.

To my mind there’s actually hope for most of us. But it would help a lot if ushers everywhere just enforced rules about it.

“It’s teen nature to want to text your BFFs during a movie (“OMG he got shot!”), but the bright displays on modern phones pose a serious distraction to those around you. In this sense, public texting could be compared to public smoking: Is it intrusive in a way that will annoy people near you? If so, thumbs down.”

I love that Wired chose to put it in appropriate context, i.e. “teen nature.” Perfect. Technology is allowing some of us to maintain an adolescent mindset.

Check out “Texting in the Company of Others Is OK”:
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/17-08/by_texting

Not sure I like it, but that’s the way the world is “evolving”.