So my hardback book is fine, but my hardback kindle isn't?

Now the FAs just go down the aisle asking "airplane mode"?

Sour much? That's a rather far-reaching conclusion based on someone pointing out that they don't listen to the safety briefing after pushback. I don't think I've actively listened to one since I was a kid in the 80s. It's background noise to most frequent flyers. We only notice when the safety video is long or if an FA is cracking jokes while doing a live briefing.

The question is, in the unlikely event of an emergency, would a passenger (frequent or not) know where the closest emergency exit was? How about where all the emergency exits are in case one or two of them are obstructed? That's the $10K question!

If you flew as a kid in the 80's, then you know that FA's yelled at you back then if you dared to get when the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign was on. Now, we just worry about texting/emailing our friends during the entire flight.

Weird.

"The court will issue a ruling". Regarding a regulation a regulatory body introduces? Courts (and flight attendants) should enforce regulations, not try to rule about them.

Am I missing something?

What's weird? Regs are subject to judicial review, like any other governmental action. They tend to cut the agency a lot of slack, but not always.

Agree ++. Just give a few moments of attention. If something happens, will ya all complain they should not have let you? Too late. Sit back and relax for a few moments. I once had a small seizure on a flight (I am ok). People around me wanted the FA to come but she had to stay seated. Once all clear and she was allowed to get up, she came checking. So just pay attention for 2-3 minutes until you know all is ok or when the plane is safely parked at the gate.

If it were about a few minutes I would be much more inclined to let the FA union have their way. Asking pax to put away electronic devices during the safety briefing is fair enough IMHO.

But that is not what they are asking for. They are asking for electronic devices to be stowed during takeoff and landing. IMO their arguments are just not strong enough for this. Surely they would then also have to ask for books to be stowed as these distract pax from the safety video and can make for very nasty projectiles. The fact that they are focussing exclusively on electronic devices suggests to me that another motivation is at play. I may be wrong, of course.

I am very sorry to hear you had a seizure, but I'm not quite sure what the relevance to this discussion is.

Airline employees who make announcements need training how to speak clearly into a microphone. Too much of what comes out of the microphone is garbled and rushed. It's a good thing safety instructions are prerecorded and/or filmed.

Yes as the kindle can become a dangerous projectile and the book cannot

I don't see how electronic devices affect people paying attention to safety videos much.
By far the single biggest reasons for not paying attention are "I know all this" or "I am too cool to look like I care about this".
(My wife wrote her master thesis on inflight safety videos - I read more statistics and research on this than I thought existed.)

That said, and to comment on one of the posters remarks that we have all seen it often enough - we actually haven't - most of us anyhow. Yes, we know where the exits are - but do you really know how to put that life jacket on properly? - do you really know you have to pull hard to start the flow of oxygen (and not just take the mask?) etc...

Maybe 16 years ago I was on a Lufthansa flight where we ended up putting life jackets on (we landed on ground but were not sure we could fully stop before the water) - I had been Senator for several years (LH's 150K status) - and guess what, putting this life jacket on was way harder than I thought. There was plenty of time and of course I figured it out - still - I then realized that we don't know as much as we think.

Take off the insulting crap about how to fasten a seat belt and people might take the rest of the stuff a little more seriously.

Agreed, reminding people to know where their nearest exit is is useful (I do this as I get on), and the oxygen mask might come in handy one day. Life jacket? I'm on the fence there. I'm not sure there's any commercial aviation incident where peoples lives have been saved by this device.

Honestly, my 4 year old could fasten a seat belt without instructions.

Three minutes here, three minutes there. According to my flightmemory page I have taken 524 flights since I started tracking. At three minutes per I have listened to a bit more than a full day's worth of safety briefings.

How about this. Since they are profiling and tracking everything about us anyway, how about they have us sign a safety briefing acknowledgement & liability waiver, or check a box online. Once. There. Now you know we know. And now you know we know that everyone else on the plane knows, or they would not be allowed to board. Save everyone some time and get rid of this antiquated ritual.

I've taken 102 flights this year, over 6 hours of safety briefings. Yet I still watch every time.

However banning my kindle for the 20 minutes taxi/take off and 30 minutes approach/landing/taxi would mean I'd have lost 85 hours of valuable reading time so far this year, and that's just not on.

As a frequent flyer (50+ flights this year), I count the number of rows forward and backward to the emergency exits long before the FAs start instructing people on how to use a seat belt. By the time the safety briefing has begun I'm listening to music and reading. When I couldn't listen to music, before being plugged in to my phone was allowed at takeoff, I read and ignored the safety briefing nearly as effectively.