We can see this loss of orienation being borne out in the public disorder in Western cities with the young implicated in most instances, but also in the lack of the sense of the need to maintain self-control among older people, whether as aircraft passengers or, in the extreme cases the US often offers, in the shooting of annoying neighbours.
Stuart Heritage, writing in The Guardian, declares:
The last few weeks have seen a rash of headlines about a number of regrettable blow-ups that have occurred because people just can’t seem to remember the basic rules of cinema etiquette any more.
In Maidstone, a woman took her ticketless child into Barbie; an act that resulted in a stand-up, full-volume physical fight. A Brazilian Barbie screening ended with a similar brawl, apparently because a woman let her child watch YouTube throughout the movie. Nor is this confined to Barbie. In June, a fight broke out at a screening of The Little Mermaid in Florida, and in March the same thing happened in France at the end of Creed III. Meanwhile, Twitter is awash with tales of poor cinema etiquette, from talking during films to taking photos during films.
[...] as a regular cinemagoer myself, I’ve seen first-hand the lack of basic common sense that has trickled in over the last few months.
While Heritage doesn't view the "chaos in the aisles" as a sign of civilisational upheaval that in fact it warrants, he does highlight how social norms have become massively degraded. His account signals the degree to which an expectation of consideration of others is low, as is that of self-restraint among those who feel offended :
They’re so used to twin-screening during films at home that it seems alien for them to not have their phones in their hands. They’re so used to talking through films at home that it seems unreasonable to be expected to remain silent in a cinema. And when this sort of behaviour meets a wall of people who have spent a considerable amount of money to just enjoy a film, of course violence is going to erupt.
It’s like [...] being on a standing room only train next to someone who has their backpack slung in an empty seat. Things are always going to kick off.
This state of affairs ‒ the "of course" and "always" ‒ results from the lack of our acknowledgement of an"objective, cosmic order of truth to which individual behavior and social norms and institutions must conform," as cited above.
And there is more evidence that social norms are breaking down as the "self" takes precedence over the "social":
When Harry Styles was pelted with chicken nuggets while on stage at New York's Madison Square Gardens last summer, he took it in his stride. "Interesting approach," smiled Styles, who has also weathered kiwi fruits, Skittles and bunches of flowers while performing. But when a mystery object hit him in the eye at a concert in Vienna last weekend, he wasn't laughing but, rather, wincing in pain.
It was the latest in a string of incidents where audience members have hurled potentially dangerous objects at performers. Earlier this month Drake was hit on the arm by a flying phone. That came days after country singer Kelsea Ballerini was struck in the face with a bracelet. In May, Bebe Rexha was taken to hospital and needed multiple stitches after a phone hit her in the eye. A man, since charged with assault, told police he thought it "would be funny" to try and hit the singer.
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| Bebe Rexha |
It's not just live music seeing disruptive behaviour. In April, police were called to a performance of The Bodyguard musical in Manchester when rowdy audience members reacted with "unprecedented levels of violence" to staff. At other venues there has been everything from "heated arguments" to full-on brawls. And in the US, one fan's disruption of a Broadway play in December 2022 followed several other incidents of audience outbursts.
Across the cultural sphere, it feels like audiences are misbehaving. At a recent Las Vegas show, Adele weighed in, saying: "Have you noticed how people are like, forgetting … show etiquette at the moment? People just throwing shit on stage" – before warning fans not to try it with her.
The BBC report above adds that Dr Kirsty Sedgman, a senior lecturer in theatre at the University of Bristol who specialises in audience research, has book just out, On Being Unreasonable, which "explores widening divisions in society over how we use public space".
Dr Sedgman is quoted as saying that cultural spaces have always been places where spontaneous outbursts could be expected but after the Covid lockdown people are behaving with more abandon:
"I work with a lot of people throughout the cultural industries, and the message seems to be pretty much unanimous that since lockdown ended, the situation has fundamentally shifted."
That is borne out in a report by the UK's Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union, which found that 90% of theatre staff had witnessed bad behaviour – and 70% believed things had got worse since the pandemic.
"It's not all audiences by any means, but for a lot of people, there's a growing sense of what I call 'don't-tell-me-what-to-do-itis'," says Sedgman. She believes we're seeing a breakdown in social contracts – the behavioural norms and rules of engagements that keep us all ticking along together nicely.
People are thirsty for live entertainment again, but increasingly want it on their terms – especially when ticket prices are soaring. "People are coming with actively competing ideals about what they want that experience to be like," says Sedgman. "Some people want to not be disturbed by others chatting or eating or drinking, or have phones blocking their way. Other people want to maybe take a step backwards to the time when the arts were a more sociable experience. The difficulty is that those pleasures are irreconcilable."
Meanwhile though, [Dr Sedgman] thinks recent incidents could be a bellwether for deeper issues. "Live performance has always been a laboratory space for figuring out what it means to be together," she explains. "Pretty much every time society goes through a big period of unrest, that unrest starts to ferment and explode in live performance first. Audiences are a kind of canary in the coal mine for much bigger frustrations and divisions starting to bubble over. It's important that we pay attention to what's happening in the cultural sphere. It's an indicator of what's happening to us as a society."
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