China Is Testing On-Screen Text Messaging In Cinemas Because Life Is Dreadful Sometimes
Hooray! This won't be completely infuriating at all!
Nothing ruins a cinema experience more than that one person who is constantly on their phone texting, tweeting or just generally being a jerk by distracting everyone else who is actually watching the movie — except this.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a few movie theatres in China, including in Beijing and Shanghai, have started testing “bullet screens” which allow audiences who send text messages about the film they’re watching to have those messages appear on the screen.
There are “precautions” to ensure “sensitive or forbidden” words aren’t included, though there’s definitely a potential for trolls. The system was trialled earlier this month on 3D movie The Legend of Qin in the Luxin theatre in Shandong Province. The manager of the cinema told The Hollywood Reporter: “People like it right now, as it’s a new thing… In the long term, it might affect people’s concentration. We are trying to continue with some bullet screen activities and play some films that young people like. Time will tell.”
Inspiration for the idea is speculated to have come from the experience of watching a film via mobile media, “which is how most Chinese people watch films”.
But if you are one of those people who wish there was a mute button for people who talk during a movie, or just want to watch what’s actually on the screen without knowing what every freaking person thinks about it, your reaction will probably be more akin to this:
