Obviously I'm showing my age, but I can remember a time when only doctors on call felt they had to be connected to the outside world while at the theater. The other night I'd say about 70% of the audience whipped out their phones before the intermission curtain reached the floor.
I'm sure some were just playing a game to kill the time and probably it beats re-reading the almost content-free program several times, but some were checking something relating to their work, considering two hours too long a time to be out of touch. These were not just the people there by themselves, in the case of pairs quite a few each spent most of the interval looking at their phones...meaningless bustle also gets in the way of being in touch with the moment and the people you are with.
Not that I'm complaining--these days I'm happy when nobody checks their phone DURING the performance.
