We Are Organized Chaos

Rocky Horror Picture Show 2.0? GEN Y TXTS 2 SCREEN

The Chicago Trib has a great article on a theater in Naperville (suburb of Chicago) that runs cult classics with audience participation – by mobile text. The technology is called MuVChat:

“The system works this way: Audience members text to a central number, which runs their comments through software. The MuVChat software then displays the texts in a three-line configuration at the bottom of the screen, like a vertical ticker, as the movie plays. Sitting in the projector booth with a standard computer, Heald uses a profanity screening program and can, on the fly, filter comments and ban abusive users.”

Mobile text to screen (where someone sends a text message that is then displayed), has often been popular at events, but this is the first time I’ve seen it used in a theater to add a level of interactivity to a movie. Though this could be considered a Gen Y version of Rocky Horror Picture Show 2.0 – the audience members are clicking out text messages on their mobile phones to enhance their viewing experience – it also offer a unique look into a unique generational trait of Gen Y from a social perspective. That unique trait being the use of text messaging over actual physical interaction as a major form of communication in a social setting.

Maybe it’s just me but sitting in a theater and texting messages on a screen might be considered anti-social or weird by some, but in a very strange way it seems a lot more normal than say this…

Tags: Gen Y, Mobile, Mobile Text 2 Screen, Social Media, Text Messaging