"Local theaters ready to bow to tweeters in the audience; But distraction to others a primary concern" by Beth Teitell | Globe Staff, December 28, 2011
To tweet or not to tweet? That’s the question facing Boston-area theaters as live-performance venues nationwide start offering “tweet seats’’ for patrons who feel the need to tweet about what they are seeing during the show, not just after it.
Purists are already complaining about the glow from all those tiny screens; think of it as secondhand phone. And Suffolk University English professor Thomas Connolly calls the trend a victory for marketing directors.
But tweet seat sections are gaining a fingerhold in Massachusetts....
The idea is not entirely new. Across the country, social media users have been live-tweeting performances for several years....
Many patrons are less worried about the tweeters’ enjoyment of the show than their own. “If someone sitting next to me is using their phone it would definitely distract and annoy me,’’ said Sasha Sherman, 28, of Watertown, who frequently attends the opera and the symphony.
Damn right.
But Eric Andersen, 35, an IBM IT architect with 7,000 Twitter followers, says tweeting has become such a big part of his life that he no longer draws a distinction between commenting to a person who is with him physically and a person who exists in his smartphone....
He's what we call a loser.
As the lines between physical and virtual companionship blur, Elisa Hale, the public relations manager at the Norma Terris Theatre, says social media users need to be accommodated, particularly by theaters trying to attract young patrons.
Maybe for you, not for me.
“You’re talking about people who can barely help themselves from texting while they’re driving,’’ she said....
Not just any tweeter will do, of course. Theaters need a correspondent who is focused on the show and not the Patriots score and who actually knows how to tweet. When the Palm Beach Opera advertised free twitter seats at its final dress rehearsal, it wanted only those with large or engaged Twitter followings.
Even legitimate tweeters can encounter issues. Said Hale: “I was reading what someone had written, thinking of a response, then realizing I should be putting down my phone to clap.’’
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I'm sorry, readers. I don't tweet or face.
