Good questions to ask "Carnethy". Would be good if more pax asked questions on board instead of looking at our requests like we are asking too much of them.
The AFT facing crew seat
This is YES, safer for crew to be facing aft, as in the event of an emergency, its likely during an impact we are going to be forced back into our seats rather than lurched fwd like pax will be. But in saying that some aircraft due to layout, have fwd facing jumpseats and as crew we are trained in best possible seating position "relaxed brace position".
The opening of window shades for take off and landing
This one intrigues a lot of pax and some ask us why. It is yes in the event of something occuring outside of the aircraft, hopefully pax are watching and can alert the crew. Often when we are in crew seats we can not see what is going on and of course the flight crew can not see the wings etc. So if a pax was to yell out some form of danger we would be a position to know and commencing brace commands.
Of interest too, a lot of pax often lift their arm rests of the seats up during the flight so they can sit across 2 seats or more, and during cabin prep time, we instruct them to put them down. Why?
Answer : They are a danger as in the event of an impact they may come flying down and injure someone, also they can be used to stablise someone in an impact given the aircraft may be unstable once in contact with the ground.
Another one, is electronic devices, games and toys being switched off at top of descent. Why?
Answer : In summary the real reason, is that pax may not be fully attentive to annoucements being made. Especially if they have their own headsets on with music like an IPOD, they may not hear brace commands being yelled out by crew. Also, these items can pose a risk to saftey in an impact by becoming high speed projectiles. Lots of theories on interferance with navigation in the flight deck, and yes this is true but it's mainly a safety related issue for pax.
Hope this has been of interest to you "Carnethy". If you have other questions from a crew perspective. Be sure to ask them. Happy to answer them.
Cheers,
Bizzi_Boi