[doctorstupid]

About these people who "use their phones to have human experiences and connect to others that aren’t physically present". How is the sender anything more than a human tripod for a webcam that happens to be in a concert? Nothing is being shared because nothing is being experienced in the first place. If anything, the camera is doing the experiencing.

By bypassing our minds and instead offloading experiences directly to the digital middleman we reduce our powers of memory and lose respect for ourselves as witnesses; we begin to feel that only what is digital is real.

Can you not see that we become less human by separating ourselves from the intimacy of experience? We demote ourselves to mediators evaporating reality to the cloud.

What musician wants to perform to a crowd of cloud-zombies? That's equivalent to a crowd of no one. And they really don't care about the experiences of those who "aren't physically present"; that's what recorded albums are for.

[parasubvert]

A person holding a camera is peresent at the concert and doing the experiencing. I don’t understand how holding s camera at all detracts from that experience any more than people at a ballgame watching it partially through the jumbotron. It’s a personal preference, it’s not up to you to decide for others what is preferable.

A phone is also an intimate device for many, it carries our most intimate thoughts, our photos - often nude! - and possibly even sexual videos, along with our banking information and every password to every app or site we touch. Using our phones during art performances does not separate ourselves from intimacy but rather embraces it and allows us to share it with our friends and family and lovers.

Just wait until augmented reality really starts taking off!

I really don’t think a musician performing has any business whether I share my experiences with others - that’s my prerogative. We’ve moved past the tired arguments for copyright and bouncers yanking cameras - it doesn’t fly anymore, and people won’t accept it. They can request no phones as part of the experience, and check ahead, though I doubt it will become a trend . most tickets are moving to phones as it is, and most rock music fans will rightly look at bans as nostalgia, just like paying for recorded music once was a thing (and still is for people over 40, but will eventually fade away).

Other venues like live theatre warrant less light and sound distraction and I think still deserve etiquette of keeping phones down to between acts or sets, though that may evolve.

[icebraining]

I'm not a recorder (in general, not just in concerts), but I'm pretty sure I can hold my phone up while I pay attention to the concert. The dichotomy you're painting rings false to me.