WTF: New Study Finds Young Moviegoers Want Theaters To Allow Texting

A recent study by The Hollywood Reporter uncovered a bunch of interesting facts about the modern moviegoer. For example, did you know that 88% of people think Twitter and Facebook now count as a form of entertainment? Or how about the fact that 80% of Facebook users check the site while watching television? Also, they found that over half of people ages 18-34 think using social media in a movie theater enhances the experience and would patronize a theater that allowed them to do that.

Wait, WHAT??!?!?!

Yup, it's true. Read more after the jump. 

The Hollywood Reporter hired a firm called Penn Schoen Berland to survey 750 social network users ages 13 to 49. Their primary goal was to find out how social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook, effect people's viewing habits. It turned out they're both quite important. You can read the full results here but one in three people has decided to see a movie based on a post on Facebook or Twitter and those numbers get even bigger looking at television and music.

But the most disturbing finding is the one mentioned above. Over 50% of people ages 18-34 like to use their phones in a theater and just under 50% would seek out a theater that allowed them to do that.

What the survey also found, though, was that overall, not just that smaller segment, 75% of total people think using a phone in a theater is distracting and ruins the expeirence. So it's just the younger kids who disagree.

"Millennials want their public moviegoing experience to replicate their own private media experiences," says pollster Jon Penn."Having dedicated social-media-friendly seats, or even entire theaters, can make the moviegoing experience more relevant and enjoyable for them."

We know one theater at least is already thinking about doing this and, if people take these findings to heart, maybe that continues. Are we really that out of touch with the youth of today?