ATTENTION AT ANY PUBLIC PROGRAM SHOULD BE ALL INTENSIVE . IT IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING AT HOME, THE OFFICE, OR THE STORE. MAYBE THE BIBLICAL IDEA OF PRAYING TO GOD IN A CLOSET SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED MORE TO GET ACROSS THE IDEA THAT THE PUBLIC USE OF ELECTRONIC 'TOYS' IS UNACCEPTABLE BY THESE SELF-IMPORTANT AND/OR BORED, AND BOORISH PEOPLE. THE MENTION OF THE BIBLE BRINGS UP THE FACT THAT THIS SHOULD ALSO BE TRUE AT ANY RELIGIOUS SERVICE. THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT IMPLIES AND DEMANDS RESPECT. I MIGHT BE LESS DOGMATIC IN AN OPEN-AIR SETTING.

Some people just don't get it. Why go to a live performance if you want play with your toys? They cannot be enjoying it so they ruin it for everyone else. Egotists!

I have a cell phone(old one) which I really don't like and someone gave it to me for a gift. My cell is turned off 98% of the time.
Cell phones have created a rude, thoughtless and disrespectful society and to use them for texting or even speaking at any performance---classical music, play, opera even a movie---shows that individual as an ignorant individual.

It's called respect and good taste. I'm always surprised to see people reading the paper during a rehearsal - and during a concert? Never. We are inundated with cell phones everywhere. We and the performers deserve a break.

Anyone using an electronic device during a concert or opera should be unceremoniously removed from the hall by security if necessary.
Perhaps they won't return and it will be a message to others who might think of using electronics during a concert in the future.

Asinine. Not only is it a good idea to banish these devices from concert halls, but an even better idea to banish them from the planet.

It seems that when people engaging in anti-social behavior find some peers doing the same thing, they institutionalize it by thinking up a big, fat euphemism. Our transgressors in the concert hall are "multi-tasking." It would be helpful (and the media could help) by calling a spade a spade: they are refusing to leave their toys in the playroom. They are, effectively, five years old.
Similarly, people exhibiting "road rage" are allowed to call it "macho," whereas if it were called "sandbox behavior," some of the culprits might decide to grow up.

Last night at the Orpheus concert at Carnegie Hall someone in the Parquet had an iPad out during the performance. The light from the screen disturbed all those sitting around him to the detriment of the orchestra, the guest artist (Kate Royal) and the composers whose music they were playing. If you have to bring your iPad, you shouldn't be there in the first place.

So, it's come to this, has it? Rude clowns 1, culture, 0. And the truly sad part is, we didn't even put up much of a fight. Did you ever listen to these 'vital communications' that interupt our lives? 99% of the time, it's nothing but pure banality. As Ray Bradbury put it in Farenheit 451, "They say nothing, nothing, nothing, and they say it loud, loud, LOUD!

As long as they let me keep playing Tetris during the performance.

I feel if someone needs the distraction of a cell phone they truely do not know what classical music is all about. This music should embrace all of your senses.

Dumb, stupid, and inconsiderate to others around you. Why bother going.

This is a terrible idea. It is disrespectful to the artists and to those sitting around anyone using a "device". A live performance is to be treasured, not interrupted.

I think we should also encourage people to play tennis during concerts or at the very least to toss balls around the concert hall. This will provide an outlet for those with attention deficit issues. Wouldn't you just love to listen to the adagio molto movement of Beethoven's 9th while part of the audience twitters and tosses ! Have we all gone mad?

- Agree with barbara spender's comment - Using a smartphone during any performance is a terrible idea....texting in a darkened area is most distracting - the illumination and busy fingers are really disruptive to concentration .....

We attend live solo and chamber recitals and orchestral concerts even though we have excellent recordings and equipment to play them. We do so because we find the live experience more intense and exciting, but if we haven't ever been a performer, we're not always aware why that is.
The listener is actually a part of the live performance. When he or she is moved by the performer, the listener's energy becomes a palpable force that exhilarates and drives the performer and something special happens. Don't ask me how, but it does. It goes back and forth and it just doesn't happen with a CD, sorry about that.
Electronic devices and other distractions will throw a big, fat monkey wrench into that dynamic, and everyone will be cheated out of that special experience by the piggishness and arrogance of a few basket cases, who should be seeking treatment for attention deficit disorder.

Generally, I think this is a horrible idea, and agree with the "anti" comments above citing distraction to serious listeners.
However, at the top of this page I noticed that the proposal mentions seating tweeters/ bloggers in a designated area. That could, possibly, work, but ONLY if it's large enough to accommodate all those wishing to tweet/blog. That's a big "if".

I don't know what the fuss is about. If I want to check my e-mail during a concert, it may be the artist's fault for delivering a boring performance. Besides, let's face it, most of us can still listen to music while doing other things in this day and age. Twitter away people!

If you can't devote all your attention to the artist, why did you come to the concert? I am in favor of forbidding ALL electronic devices during the performance. A complicating factor is the rise of informal venues -- half cabaret, half concert hall -- for new music. It's one thing to switch seats or buy drinks during program pauses, but texting DURING A PERFORMANCE is an insult to the musicians.

Also, pictures, video, and audio recordings raise major copyright issues. Read the fine print on your ticket.

A lighted screen anywhere within my lines of sight will be a distraction, will cause me to be irritated, and reduce the enjoyment of the concert. I can accept it if there is one part of the concert hall set aside for tweeters, preferably behind everybody else, and all ticket purchasers are alerted to that being the tweeting section.

Anything diverting one's attention at a concert is disrespectful. Also, one's dress is noteworthy. I never go to a Broadway show or NJPAC concert without a shirt, jacket, & tie. It's a sign of respect for the professional performers! Why pay $120 for a ticket, and go dressed like you were going to the supermarket?

Disgusting. That anyone even comes up with an idea like this is rude, thoughtless and disgracefully stupid. What ever happened to decent behavior in the area of manners and consideration for others? In this day and age it seems barely to exist in any area whatsoever.

Compulsive, stupid, childish, inconsiderate of one's neighbors and disrespectful to the performers.
The adminstrators of this need to go back to school.

It is a terrible idea.
I attend a concert to observe the players and listen to their music. I can live without e-mails, twitters, facebook, etc.!

The idea that anyone would want to "keep up" with the outside world during a concert is a reflection of people's fear that they're "missing something" when they set foot in a concert hall, museum, theater, or other artistic space. In fact, we're really missing nothing, but gaining surcease from the continual bombardment of information and demands from the outside world.

In principle, the debate over whether it's appropriate to text during a performance is much ado about nothing. Some people have been writing notes by hand all along, so in that sense, I don't see what the difference is. The trouble is that most people can't be discrete about it - screens tend to light up in a distracting way, but if one can dim the screen or if its not a dark space, it might not be an issue.
But why anyone would want to encourage such behavior is beyond me. I agree with suze. The last thing the world needs is more inane twittering.

Today's generation is addicted to their electronic devices. If you wish to attend a performance then give it your time, attention and respect. Take you device and use it outside during intermission or wait for the end of the performance.

Inviting distractions in the concert hall. I can't think of a worse addition to the musical experience.

It is extremely disturbing; I would choose not to attend any performances in the Hall that permits this.

Stop trying to appeal to the gadget-attached audience whose multi-tasking is ruining all aspects of society. One more reason to avoid Avery Fisher Hall.

This is a terrible idea. Don't encourage these boors. That is one thing they don't need.

Bad idea..it is so distracting to others. I see no upside to this.

Absolutely, unequivocally, NO!

Despite requests to the contrary, selfish concertgoers still insist on using their instruments during concerts, disturbing other people who have actually come to hear the music. One cannot concentrate on the performance while texting, tweeting, rustling through the program, adjusting jewelry or other selfish acts.

Did I say "selfish"? That's all it is--"It's all about ME, and to hell with anybody else's concertgoing experience!"

Absolutely, unequivocally, NO!

That flash of light from a mobile device in a dark concert hall pulls your eye away from the performance. It really breaks the mood.

TERRIBLE IDEA! The lights from these devices is incredibly distracting during the performance. Why on earth would NY Philharmonic want to do this? Good reason for us to avoid their concerts.