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

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

#481

Post by ThomPete » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:07 AM UTC

CUViper wrote: post #246

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

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.

Then you don't go to the show.

Sorry but you talk about checking in on the babysitter as if it's some universal law. It's not you don't have to, and if you feel like you can't go out and enjoy a show without checking in then don't go to the show.

And yes I have kids.

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

#482

Post by maxehmookau » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:19 AM UTC

tomcooks wrote: post #468

maxehmookau wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the Manchester Arena bombing last year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Arena_bombing Thousands of unaccompanied teenagers subjected to a bomb attack. Without access to their phones, this could've been so much worse.

How worse and for what reasons? I don't understand how phones mitigate bomb attacks

They allow children to get hold of their parents, order transport home, etc. If they've run away from the venue without first unlocking their phone, they end up wandering around outside, at night, alone after a significant event such as this.

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

#483

Post by fsloth » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:26 AM UTC

aerovistae wrote: post #443

ken wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the viscerality of this response is fascinating. Putting your phone in a case is a "prison", and you must check it every time you go to the toilet, and you're concerned about a terrorist attack -- enough to want your phone, but not enough to stay home, as if your apps could somehow save you. > Treat people like adults. If they break the rules, ask them to leave. Isn't that what we've been trying for the past…

Don't be ridiculous. Fear of terrorism is not the only factor. Cellphones are one of the past century's greatest contributions to public safety. If you want to be antagonistic about the threat of a bombing, how about a more commonplace example: you're a very drunk young girl who's been separated from her friends at the concert and a pushy, aggressive guy you don't know is trying to get you into his car to go home wit…

"Cellphones are one of the past century's greatest contributions to public safety."

Don't you think that's a bit if a neurotic and control freak way to look at it?

Humans survive splendidly on oxygen and agreeable temperature for days and are really hard to kill.

If we lived in a Syrianesque dystopia all around I would get your anxiety but any above median income metropolis should be just fine for supporting a humanoid lifeform for brief excursions out of ones home environment.

Phones are fantastic for public surveillance, but that's another thing entirely.

I'm a parent and I get the anxiety but worrying too much and helicoptering the children out of all rough spots is really not a skillfull way to worry through ones life.

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

#484

Post by tinus_hn » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:35 AM UTC

DrScump wrote: post #408

dannyw wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jamming legal signals, even in private property, is very very illegal.

Jamming , yes. If your venue just happens to block all signals as an effect of its design (working like a Faraday cage), it could legally have repeaters that are powered off during the performance proper.

That requires the largest hole in the cage to be smaller than the signal wavelength, which makes it pretty difficult to get in.

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

#485

Post by avenius » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:37 AM UTC

davb wrote: post #87

I experienced the Yondr phone prison last night for the first time (at a Chris Rock show). While I detest people being disruptive with their phones, I don’t think this is the right solution. From a practical standpoint, it took a lot longer to get into and out of the venue when phones had to be locked up. Checking your phone when you pop out to the toilet meant waiting in a queue to have your phone unlocked, and bein…

Last year I went to a King Crimson concert. There were no "phone prisons", but they repeatedly informed the audience to keep their phones pocketed until the end of the show. This seemed to work wonders, as I didn't see a single phone for the duration of the show. Now, naturally this was a somewhat different audience than e.g. a Chris Rock show, but it does prove that it's possible. Maybe it all comes down to respect?

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

#486

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:49 AM UTC

aembleton wrote: post #479

stryk wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was lucky enough to win tickets to a NIN concert from a radio station call-in in the late 1990's or early 2000's (it was around the time the "God is dead and no one cares" song was all the rage). These tickets included access to the soundcheck. I went and saw Trent Reznor with a walkie-talkie going seat-to-seat-to-seat in the venue (and this was a 6k+ seat venue, not counting standing-only areas which he visited as…

6000*15s = 25 hours. Really? I can understand him checking every couple of rows in each stand or something. For example, every 100 seats but not each seat.

[deleted]

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

#487

Post by 4ad » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:56 AM UTC

epicide wrote: post #127

jasonkostempski wrote: post #25

I've heard of a few artists doing this over the past year or so. I think the banning is ultimately useless and enforcing it adds more invasiveness to the already overly invasive process of getting into a venue. A simple reminder before the concert starts that you're an asshole if hold your phone up is as far as this should go, works fine in movie theaters. Maybe phones should have a feature to take pics with the scre…

> works fine in movie theaters. Except when it doesn't. I can't remember the last time I went to see a movie where somebody didn't light up the place with their phone at least once during the film. > phones should have a feature to take pics with the screen off This quickly gets into a creepy territory. I realize there are already ways to do this and there are hidden cameras, but we should probably maintain some barr…

> I can't remember the last time I went to see a movie where somebody didn't light up the place with their phone at least once during the film.

This has never happened to me in Europe, ever. It's an American thing. Also, in the US I can never properly enjoy a movie at the cinema because people are always talking or laughing.

The behavior of people at venues is largely dictated by the local culture.

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

#488

Post by 4ad » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:58 AM UTC

monksy wrote: post #167

15155 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some possible circumvention: - Don't disclose your phone - Put a cheap ringer in your pocket - Cut through the package in the parking lot and re-enter

At shows you usually go through a metal detector, which will find the phone. The venue will "ban you from going in" if you refuse to allow them to deface the phone. Source: Me. (I'm not going to accept the whole phone defacement ordeal)

Metal detectors?? At shows?? Luckily I have never seen such a thing in Europe, but undoubtedly we will copy the US in a few years. I can't believe how much we've degenerated.

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

#489

Post by WillReplyfFood » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 11:59 AM UTC

tomcooks wrote: post #465

frogpelt wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple of cool apps on phones called "Telephone" and "Messages" and you can call or text people in an emergency situation. I'm pretty sure those are the apps one would use during a terrorist attack. But I've never been involved in one, so I could be wrong.

When a whole concert tries to call at the same time it's usually impossible to call because of saturated lines (t least in eu)

Such events usually are used to trigger pre-emptive police and emergency services, so even reaching noone- is quite alarming.

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

#490

Post by titzer » Fri, Jan 26, 2018, 12:01 PM UTC

sclangdon wrote: post #476

titzer wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or how about this? > Or how about this? > Don't act like cellphones have no practical use sigh Humans have survived for hundreds of thousands of years without cellphones. For any new tech, you can continually imagine scenarios where survival "absolutely depends on" having this tech. How about this? You're sitting in your ISS sleep capsule and suddenly the station starts to depressurize. You hop into your reentry-sa…

sigh , you are not the Human race. Yes, Humans as a race have survived without cellphones, but that doesn't mean for an instance that the same applies to individuals. You can't simply brush aside the parent's comments because you don't agree with them. A potential rape situation, or a lost and frightened child are very valid, and very real examples of how having a phone could help. > Cellphones have made people into…

> You can't simply brush aside the parent's comments because you don't agree with them. A potential rape situation, or a lost and frightened child are very valid, and very real examples of how having a phone could help.

A lot of things could help too. Like a gun or an epipen. My point is that cellphones have become people's #1 indispensable safety blankets to the point that being without fills them with fear. Why are we so afraid of everything? If you've got ID, keys, and a little bit of money, you're mostly golden. And even taking away one or all of those, you won't die instantly.

> You realise that people can be scared and helpless without being sheep, right?

The fact that people become so uncomfortable and literally afraid when they are separated from their devices that didn't even exist 10-15 years ago is not a good sign.

I wish everyone would just stop pedaling fear like this. You'll be fine without your phone for a few minutes. There aren't rapists, terrorists around every corner; aliens aren't abducting people, and you probably aren't going to have a brain aneurysm and be unable to call for help.