I don't go to the cinema often but when I do I want the big screen experience with wraparound sound where you can almost feel part of the film.

Sadly, the reality is rarely like that because of the food, drink, popcorn and sweet counters in the foyer and the occasional burp of an illicit mobile phone.

Then I read that a very successful businessman called Hunter Walk, who knows a thing or two about the small screen industry after holding senior posts on YouTube and Google, has come up with a new suggestion.

He says patrons should be free to use their smartphones, iPads and tablets while watching the film.

Wouldn’t it be cool, he suggests, if theatres put in extra sockets in which to plug devices and have low level lighting to make the whole business that much easier. If bored, the viewers could do something else. If excited, they could tweet a friend to share the experience.

“Great movie. Just getting to the climax. Whoops! Missed it.”

I realise there are those who cannot bear to be parted, even for a second, from their connection to the world wide web of electronic and wireless connections that allows anybody anywhere to chat.

“It’s raining in Slawit. What’s the weather like in Kuala Lumpur?”

That’s why mobile phones – one in 10, according to Sony – get dropped down loos. That’s why – according to a survey this month – half the population suffer from “nomophobia” (what a lovely addition the English language) which is a fear of being without a mobile.

Poor things. Maybe they should try sucking a dummy instead.

So it’s obvious they need to feel connected in the pictures and they would probably welcome Hunter Walk’s ideas. In fact, why not take it a stage further and, instead of rows of seats, have the audience sitting around coffee tables with standard lamps and a kitchen area at the back where they could go and make a cup of tea and see if there are any chocolate biscuits left in the Sainsbury’s selection box. And those with the concentration span of a goldfish will know when the picture ends because somebody turns the big light on.

I went through this form of viewing at home in the 1950s when the curtains were drawn and we watched television with a lamp on. I didn’t find it particularly enthralling then and I don’t now.

Kids going to watch One Direction or those drawn to the latest American romcom rubbish should be allowed popcorn and hotdogs because they will be a distraction to nobody. But there is a section of cinema that remains an art form that deserves better.

Good films – and that term can encompass films of all kinds – are best viewed without your neighbour having a picnic and slurping a cola or without a mobile going off or someone checking his Facebook page.

I have a different suggestion. How about if multi-screen cinemas designated certain of their screenings free of food and all electronic devices?