Samantha Brown's Most Bizarre In-Flight Habit
Many habits of airplane passengers are more like rituals, such as touching the plane while boarding or clapping upon landing. However, other in-flight habits are much more annoying and intrusive than those rituals — not following airplane seat reclining etiquette or eating something with a strong odor fall into this category.
Other in-flight habits are just plain (ahem) odd. On her official Facebook page, TV traveler Samantha Brown confessed to a bizarre in-flight habit — she watches other people's movies. Brown even posted a photo of herself watching "Top Gun: Maverick" on someone's screen across the aisle from her. She wrote that she was "riveted" and "choked up three times" while watching the movie, even though she could barely read the captions. Even with the heightened emotions that come with plane travel, crying through a film you can't hear is a new one for us. The less said about crying while watching "Top Gun," the better.
Brown also confessed to this habit on her Instagram page. In a reel posted on her page, Brown said she can't watch movies on an airplane, but she is more than capable of watching her seatmate's movie, staring between the seats in front of her, or watching the screen diagonally across the aisle. The only type of movies she can't watch, Brown says, are violent ones. So. if you're on a flight with Samantha Brown and don't want her peering over your shoulder, watch something full of blood and gore.
Does anyone else do this?
Samantha Brown is not alone in watching other people's movies. Several people confessed to doing the same, with some commenters on Brown's Facebook page writing that they do it when their own screen isn't working. One commented that their screen feels too close, and another compared it to looking at food on someone else's plate, which is always more interesting than your own.
On Brown's Instagram reel, one commenter writes that they can't commit to just one movie, so they like "sampling" those around them. Saturday Night Live even has a skit about this phenomenon, showing a man with no entertainment options of his own watching a movie "catty-corner" to him before the inevitable hilarity ensues. One of the commenters on Brown's Instagram took the whole thing a step further, writing that she learned a sudoku strategy from someone playing on the screen in front of her on a plane. It's one way to pass the time on those long flights, but be wary of the whole "staring at another person's screen" thing.