Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience” • Hacker News Board

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#311

Post by cptskippy » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

triangleman wrote: post #140

dizzystar wrote: post #85

Man, I can stand behind this. You have no idea how distracting it is to the musicians on stage when they look at the crowd and see a bunch of cell phones facing them. I'd rather see everyone bored and talking. At least that's a genuine response. I feel it's quite disrespectful to be looking at your cellphone and recording while a performer is on stage. The performer is there for you, and you presumably went there to…

We need a new etiquette and I'm not sure our culture can support one right now. Video: A few seconds, once or twice, is ok. Photos: No flash photography Audio: Record the whole show if you want. Isn't that how most Phish music is distributed? I am fine with artists putting hard limits on their audience. If they believe it will improve their art, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. It might help or hurt them fin…

> We need a new etiquette and I'm not sure our culture can support one right now.

Can't or won't?

I think it's interesting that those with the poorest etiquette are actually older generations who have abandoned it almost entirely simply because portions of it became outdated.

The younger generations who actually understand all of the new technology, social issues surrounding LGBTQ..., and the #MeToo banner wavers are, to me, the best people to establish new etiquette and to push for it's adoption.

Etiquette is about decency and treating each other with respect and fairness. What better way to make your mark on history than to be the generation who chose mutual respect and fairness over greed and self indulgence.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#312

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

pythonaut_16 wrote: post #271

Posibyte wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I wholeheartedly agree, the devil's advocate within me likes to remind that we had been mobile phone-less for years with no major concern.

We were without antibiotics for hundreds of years but no one's suggesting we go back to that. We were without mandatory seat belts for decades but no one's suggesting we go back to that. I just don't find the argument that there was a time where we did without something as a compelling counter argument to the perceived utility something serves today.

[deleted]

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#313

Post by j_s » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #276

CUViper wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of my human experience may include checking how the babysitter is doing with the kids. I'm not going to do that in a way that disrupts the show, but I still want that access.

How did people do that before there were cell phones?

>How did people do that before there were cell phones?

Trust the babysitter to make wise choices. This is actully really tough as cell phones end up lowering the standard expected of babysitters, like the whole GPS/map thing.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#314

Post by to_bpr » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:04 PM UTC

loeg wrote: post #297

foolfoolz wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think the whole point is not being able to check your phone adds to the human experience

Checking phones is part of the human experience.

Compulsive, addiction driven behaviour due to the gamification of apps and basic services?

I say let's remove that from our experience.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#315

Post by moonka » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:05 PM UTC

monksy wrote: post #59

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the reasons a comic might do that is to avoid being the target of a Twitter outrage mob over a recording of them doing an insensitive joke.

Or they do it because because they don't want to be called out on a bad set. (I've heard a venue guy from Detroit pointing out Chappel for that) Found the article on the Detroit one: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/dave-chappelle-fans... I could have sworn he had issues at a PA show as well, but that was recorded. Hannibal Burress doesn't like it because he said some unverified bits about Cosby and got caugh…

I'd believe it. I love Chappelle's show and specials. I won't go see him live again though. I saw him once about 10 years ago and it was a big disappointment. He was very stoned, and the only interesting part was when he dressed down an audience member who kept yelling at him about Rick James.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#316

Post by j_s » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:07 PM UTC

Is there any phone app that purposely records video in the background without turning on the screen? I wouldn't care as much if people holding up their phones weren't shining back at me. I assume this is possible with audio, though concert audio is usually way too loud to record on a phone without additional equipment.

I believe this may not even be possible due to privacy issues, hidden cameras / recording without consent is enough of a problem already!

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#317

Post by dragonwriter » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:09 PM UTC

dblohm7 wrote: post #278

CUViper wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of my human experience may include checking how the babysitter is doing with the kids. I'm not going to do that in a way that disrupts the show, but I still want that access.

Is that really necessary? Our parents didn't have that luxury, and we turned out fine...

> Our parents didn't have that luxury

Yes, they did; before ubiquitous cellphones killed demand for them, basically every public place of any size (and many small ones, and even just public streets) had banks of payphones, and for many kinds of outings people would leave the phone number of the restaurant or other establishment that they were going to for emergency contact in the other direction.

The last generation that didn't have that “luxury” was whichever one was before landlines were ubiquitous.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#318

Post by to_bpr » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:10 PM UTC

mullen wrote: post #256

rapnie wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i survived the era before mobile.. it wasn't that scary :)

I have to laugh at some these posts. I also lived in a world without cell phones and I (and the rest of the world) did just fine. Turning off your phones at a concert is not a big deal at all.

Indeed. Pleas to "terrorism" and "think of the children" on a topic of simply unable to access your phone for a couple of hours.

HN has experienced a palpable drop in quality recently.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#319

Post by tclancy » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:12 PM UTC

alangibson wrote: post #287

While I'm definitely on Jack's side spiritually, Yondr is not an efficient solution. We need to consciously and intentionally establish a norm of 'no phones' in certain group situations, just like how many areas have established a norm of 'no smoking'. And, yes, it's true that 'no smoking' often has local law to help drive the idea home, but it's not like there's a cop monitoring the smoking situation in every public…

Except it is hard to do because in this case where it's not an obvious problem to the people around you (like smoking), everyone agrees with the rule of no cellphones but thinks they're a special case. I was at a Bill Burr show where he caught a woman on her phone. She was checking her home security camera. For her dog. Twice.

Phones are clearly some step on the road to handing off part of our memory and socializing to a device that helps us, but it has completely changed our perspective. I remember reading a blog post by Charlie Stross a few years back about the idea of never being lost again (because of GPS + phones) and it seemed like a nice step in human innovation, but what I've come to realize is there's a negative to every positive phones bring: now I am liable to soil myself when I lose GPS in a strange place. And I'm at least old enough to know about road atlases.

I have a four year old and I can only imagine what kind of complex we are going to give her with the idea you always need to be able to reach them, the babysitter, the venue they're at, whomever. My wife and I have agreed to try hard not to do that; I assume if we succeed we will get in trouble with child protective services or her school at some point.

Re: Jack White bans phones at gigs for “100% human experience”

#320

Post by whatyoucantsay » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 10:14 PM UTC

davb wrote: post #282

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did people do that before there were cell phones?

My folks used the payphones at most venues to call our landline and speak to the babysitter.

It's interesting they didn't have confidence in the babysitter's ability to take care of you for an evening but still chose to hire them and then monitored them via payphone.

Most times when babysitters are hired, now or a generation ago, they're trusted to make reasonable decisions so the parents don't have to worry.