When we’re kids, we learn basic etiquette for behaving in public spaces – both from our parents, and from observing other people around us.

For example, you learn pretty young that swinging your legs and kicking other peoples’ chairs isn’t okay, and that screaming because you can’t afford something doesn’t go down well.

And from your very first trips to the movies, you learn to silence your phone, and to be respectful to the other patrons there too.

The guy in this story certainly knows that. But unfortunately for him, his fellow movie patrons seem not to.

Read on to find out what happened.

AITA for calling the attention of a laptop user inside the cinema?

Recently I was at a movie showing, with only a few people watching.

I sat down first in my seat.

A college-age couple sat in front when it was already dark and all the trailers were being shown.

When the movie was about to show the company credits, the woman in the couple took out her laptop, looked at a few things, and closed it again.

Uh-oh. Let’s see how things escalated from there.

However, when the movie started, the woman opened the laptop again, looked at various programs, most of which were not yet in dark mode and intended to work.

The laptop was on the lowest brightness. The couple reclined their chair, so the light on the screen was even more visible.

When I realized that the woman was not going to stop because the movie had already started and she was still on her laptop, I angrily quipped “Jesus, what is that? Working with a laptop in a movie theater is not basic etiquette!”

The couple seemed to have spoken to each calmly and equally calmly the man and asked “Are we bothering you?”

Read on to find out what happened next.

I replied “Yes, isn’t it obvious? It’s basic urbanity not to use a laptop in a movie theater.”

They apologized and behaved, in all fairness.

When the movie ended, the woman got brave and turned back to address me and said, “Yes, we were wrong but I wish you had said it in a nice way like we said it now. I wish you had just tapped us or brought it to our attention.”

Because of the seeming stupidity and absurdity of the situation and also because I sensed the passive aggressiveness, I was shaking with anger.

Let’s see how he responded to her confrontation.

I said a lot in a heightened tone but the gist of it was about being basic etiquette and considerate not to use devices especially laptops in the cinema, because it is not a co working space.

Because the couple did not want to back down, I called a guard who served as an usher.

The guard said that I should not have been so angry with my approach, but I explained that it was not an overreaction because the laptop screen is not small like a cellphone and it was obviously distracting.

The guard encouraged us to talk in front of the manager, but the couple declined and passive aggressively and “in a nice way” said okay, we don’t want to make the issue bigger like what he’s doing, and look we’re the ones who are really in the wrong.

AITA?

It’s understandable that the guy was a little annoyed, since you go to the movies to watch the movie, not to work on your laptop.

He’s right, that is basic etiquette, since the people around you want to focus on the movie itself.

But really, shaking with anger is a bit extreme too – it’s no wonder the usher wanted a manager involved.

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person thought that the couple were the ones in the wrong here.

While others believed that they might’ve had ulterior motives for their laptop use.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought that his anger was too much.

It’s definitely not a good look to be using a laptop inside a movie theatre.

And the couple never should’ve spoken to him in the way that they did.

But there’s no excuse for shaking with anger at a basic confrontation either.

This escalated too quickly.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.