9 ms·

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

by foolfoolz 9y ago

kakarot 9y ago
What is the "human experience"?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Jach 9y ago
  For some people going an hour without checking their phone is like going into the hyperbolic time chamber for 10 seconds.
- __s 9y ago
  In this context, the collective experience of the concert, engaging with it as your immediate world, cutting off the outside as would a cult, this is the cult of music, let it consume you as you consume it
CUViper 9y ago
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.
- ManuelKiessling 9y ago
  How did people do that before there were cell phones?
  - davb 9y ago
    My folks used the payphones at most venues to call our landline and speak to the babysitter.
    - whatyoucantsay 9y ago
      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.
      - ccallebs 9y ago
        > 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. No one questioned the babysitter's competence. They're your children -- you're going to want to call and check to see how things are going.
        blattimwind 9y ago
        Uhm, yes you are, and pretty clearly at that.
        scoggs 9y ago
        No, not really. If someone goes out for drinks, then dinner, then a show and the night is going really well maybe the parents want to call and check in. They want to see how the nights going for the babysitter and kid. Are the kids asleep? Is the babysitter content to make some more money for a few extra hours? I think that's all entirely reasonable. It really has little to do with the matter at hand but having to wait in a line to submit or retrieve your phone, be sequestered to a penned in area to use your phone, and then to have to wait in line again to put your phone back into that "prison" system again seems like overkill. I know that's the only way we've been able to identify that works but I don't think there is any surefire method that will not only please the artists / performers and keep the viewers / fans / people in attendance happy.
        DrScump 9y ago
  - j_s 9y ago
    >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.
  - dazc 9y ago
    'How did people do that before there were cell phones? reply' I used to sit for my nieces and nephews before mobiles were in common usage. My sister would give me the number of the place they were going in case there was a problem. Of course, this was useless if they had gone to somewhere where there may be more than a couple of dozen people? So, in reality, people used to hire baby sitters and just trust them to be able to cope. It's not as if you could do much from the other end of a phone if there actually was an emergency?
  - lucozade 9y ago
    Babysitting probably isn't a great example, but cellphones affect the process of communicating so, unless you're expecting not to have the phone on you, it can actually be detrimental when you don't. The main difference is that you tend to plan less up front. When our children were younger, and we had babysitters, we'd point out where the obvious stuff was but if they needed something, they'd just text. You just don't bother with the 15 min tour that I'd have got when I was doing the babysitting. As a tangential, vaguely amusing, anecdote. A few years ago, my eldest's phone was a bit dodgy and kept cutting out. He was going to meet up with my wife in town but was meeting friends first. The two of them, my wife and son, spent about 5 minutes trying to work out how they could contact each other. I, genius that I am, proposed a radical solution. I suggested that they arrange to meet at an agreed time and place. It had been such a long time since this was necessary that it hadn't even occurred to my wife (for which I still won't let her forget). My son had never, in his 15 odd years at the time, needed to do this.
- dblohm7 9y ago
  Is that really necessary? Our parents didn't have that luxury, and we turned out fine...
  - spac 9y ago
    Except for all the cases in which things didn't turn out fine, but would have if a cellphone had existed, and that you never really heard about. (minor grammar edit)
    - dblohm7 9y ago
      Nonetheless, humanity was not wiped out by the absence of phones.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    > 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.
    - Angostura 9y ago
      People really didn't go to a phonebox to phone the babysitter, though.
      - PhasmaFelis 9y ago
        They did.
      - dragonwriter 9y ago
        Yes, they really did. Both when I was the baby-sat and, years later, when I was the baby sitter. Though more likely about an unexpected delay or need that was omitted in prior communication than just a check-in, IME.
- DrScump 9y ago
  checking how the babysitter is doing with the kids ...in which case you would simply walk out to the lobby and tap the case on any unlocking base.
- Theodores 9y ago
  I spent my whole teenage babysitting, half a dozen regular gigs and also for families in holiday homes. Not once was there a situation where I needed to call the parents or vice-versa. I suppose they have guns in America so maybe you do need to worry about the kids being SWAT raided or kidnapped. However, the general idea is that the parents go out, drink loads of alcohol and come back around 3 a.m. to be hungover the next morning. Meanwhile, the deal the kids struck with the babysitter was a simple one - they could stay up as late as they wanted just so long as they pretended to be asleep if mummy and daddy come back early. The next morning the kids sleep in and everyone is happy. So you have to let go. Trust the babysitter. Trust your seven year old daughter to try and stay up extra late by showing the babysitter daddy's secret porn collection, hidden behind the antiquarian book collection but all too easy to find for an adventurous child. Of course none of these things or the strange noises the parents make in bed get to be an issue, you just pay babysitter and make them feel welcome and all is good. So Jack White is right.
  - stuaxo 9y ago
    No idea why you are downvoted for this.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  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.
  - Mithaldu 9y ago
    Why do you believe FYGM is an appropriate response?
    - ThomPete 9y ago
      Because any leisure is a personal choice which you can choose to do or not if you really are worried that you can't get in contact with your nanny then don't go to the concert where they require you to not bring it, don't go to the movies, don't go anywhere you can loose connection and don't go flying. It's perfectly fine if you don't want to take that chance but it's hardly an argument for why someone shouldn't do a show where they ban cellphones.
lobf 9y ago
Being available for work is part of my "human experience." edit- I really don't understand why this is downvote worthy...
- nicky0 9y ago
  Because it is pathetic. You're available for work while at a Chris Rock show?
  - lobf 9y ago
    ...pathetic, thanks. I work freelance film production. I get calls for work at random hours and if I don't respond quickly that offer can expire. I also work on high-pressure, quick turnaround jobs a lot, and part of the deal as a freelancer is that I'm always available. As a result, I keep my phone with me. I'm sorry that my earning a living is pathetic to you.
    - nicky0 9y ago
      Apology accepted.
  - Spivak 9y ago
    You've never worked a job where you might be called in during an emergency? We're in a forum full of sysadmins and devops people and this idea is foreign?
    - gsich 9y ago
      Sysadmins and devops people usually have a standby rotation.
  - dang 9y ago
    Name-calling isn't allowed in comments here. Could you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not do this again?
loeg 9y ago
Checking phones is part of the human experience.
- to_bpr 9y ago
  Compulsive, addiction driven behaviour due to the gamification of apps and basic services? I say let's remove that from our experience.
  - loeg 9y ago
    You're free to make your own choices, but not to inflect them on others.
    - to_bpr 9y ago
      The perfect argument against allowing people access to their phones at performances.
    - trgv 9y ago
      Of course it's not quite that simple. People using phones at a concert affects everyone's experience. This is a godsend for some of us. It absolutely detracts from my experience in theaters, concerts, shows, etc when everyone has a phone out. My feeling is that this is a valid choice for artists to make, and if you disagree then avoid shows where this is the policy.
    - masonic 9y ago
      This is exactly why performers seek to stop video recording in the first place. Or part of why. There are several motivators: 1) use of the recording that could cost paying attendance in the future (e.g. copyright issues) 2) damage control of statements that they regret later (e.g. Michael Richards' racist rant) 3) Protection of the interests of all the attendees positioned behind and around you. When anybody is recording, view from directly behind is outright obscured, and the experience of everybody behind you, where you are in their field of view at all, is impaired by this lit-up screen facing them. People who are recording are inflicting their choice on all others behind them.
kbenson 9y ago
I think the counterpoint is that for some people, the more human experience is not a selling point, and actually a fairly large negative. Beyond the points laid out before, I have multiple children and multiple pets, and I'm the some person responsible for the technology stack at my small company which (means I'm on call for somewhat infrequent but not unheard of issues). Not being allowed my phone might just mean "eh, it's irresponsible of me to go" depending on the situation, and that's with my phone safely ensconced in my pocket except for an emergency. Also, let's not let this "human" experience stuff slide, what it really means is "a late 1990's to early 2000's experience". It's not like pyrotechnics, large screens and giant electronic speakers are anything you would experience prior to 100 years ago. If you don't want people doing certain things with their phones, then make it clear what is and isn't acceptable and combat it directly. For example, give everyone a wristband, and explain exactly what it's for. It's your one warning/get out of etiquette jail free card. If they have to come and tell you to stop doing something you were already warned about, they take the wristband. If they have to tell you again, you're out.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  Then perhaps that show isn't for them.
- gkya 9y ago
  The most annoying thing with phones is that they distract other people. You might be kind enough to not use your phone during a collective event, but other people are not. Frankly I don't care about it in a concert as you go there for the music most of the time, but I've seen people have use phones in every single movie I saw at a cinema and at every single theatre play I've been to, even in post-modern shows in tiny venues with much less than 50 seats. There are lots of idiots that can't look at something interesting without capturing it in photo and video, distracting everybody including the performers, who may indeed not want the performance recorded. A comment higher up says treat people like adults. Adults are not adult adults. They are more like monkeys that compulsively do things and then maybe, only maybe think if what they did was appropriate or not.
- culot 9y ago
  You cannot expect hardened smartphone addicts to follow directives that crossgrain their addiction. The only reason harsh policies like this are being enacted is because wrist-slaps and pleas do not work. It basically boils down to: if you want to go to the concert, you set aside the smartphone for a while. If not, don't go. > what it really means is "a late 1990's to early 2000's experience" Calling it a 'human experience' seems rather apt. When you're plugged into your smartphone frequently, you're not plugged into now; when you're playing on your computer instead of experiencing your immediate surroundings, it'd be more apt that to say that you're not partaking in the human experience, but an internet experience. 'Human experience' is apt, just like 'internet experience' would be apt for those that choose computer interaction.

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

kakarot 9y ago

What is the "human experience"?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Jach 9y ago
For some people going an hour without checking their phone is like going into the hyperbolic time chamber for 10 seconds.
__s 9y ago
In this context, the collective experience of the concert, engaging with it as your immediate world, cutting off the outside as would a cult, this is the cult of music, let it consume you as you consume it

CUViper 9y ago

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.

ManuelKiessling 9y ago
How did people do that before there were cell phones?
- davb 9y ago
  My folks used the payphones at most venues to call our landline and speak to the babysitter.
  - whatyoucantsay 9y ago
    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.
    - ccallebs 9y ago
      > 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. No one questioned the babysitter's competence. They're your children -- you're going to want to call and check to see how things are going.
      - blattimwind 9y ago
        Uhm, yes you are, and pretty clearly at that.
        scoggs 9y ago
        No, not really. If someone goes out for drinks, then dinner, then a show and the night is going really well maybe the parents want to call and check in. They want to see how the nights going for the babysitter and kid. Are the kids asleep? Is the babysitter content to make some more money for a few extra hours? I think that's all entirely reasonable. It really has little to do with the matter at hand but having to wait in a line to submit or retrieve your phone, be sequestered to a penned in area to use your phone, and then to have to wait in line again to put your phone back into that "prison" system again seems like overkill. I know that's the only way we've been able to identify that works but I don't think there is any surefire method that will not only please the artists / performers and keep the viewers / fans / people in attendance happy.
        DrScump 9y ago
- j_s 9y ago
  >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.
- dazc 9y ago
  'How did people do that before there were cell phones? reply' I used to sit for my nieces and nephews before mobiles were in common usage. My sister would give me the number of the place they were going in case there was a problem. Of course, this was useless if they had gone to somewhere where there may be more than a couple of dozen people? So, in reality, people used to hire baby sitters and just trust them to be able to cope. It's not as if you could do much from the other end of a phone if there actually was an emergency?
- lucozade 9y ago
  Babysitting probably isn't a great example, but cellphones affect the process of communicating so, unless you're expecting not to have the phone on you, it can actually be detrimental when you don't. The main difference is that you tend to plan less up front. When our children were younger, and we had babysitters, we'd point out where the obvious stuff was but if they needed something, they'd just text. You just don't bother with the 15 min tour that I'd have got when I was doing the babysitting. As a tangential, vaguely amusing, anecdote. A few years ago, my eldest's phone was a bit dodgy and kept cutting out. He was going to meet up with my wife in town but was meeting friends first. The two of them, my wife and son, spent about 5 minutes trying to work out how they could contact each other. I, genius that I am, proposed a radical solution. I suggested that they arrange to meet at an agreed time and place. It had been such a long time since this was necessary that it hadn't even occurred to my wife (for which I still won't let her forget). My son had never, in his 15 odd years at the time, needed to do this.
dblohm7 9y ago
Is that really necessary? Our parents didn't have that luxury, and we turned out fine...
- spac 9y ago
  Except for all the cases in which things didn't turn out fine, but would have if a cellphone had existed, and that you never really heard about. (minor grammar edit)
  - dblohm7 9y ago
    Nonetheless, humanity was not wiped out by the absence of phones.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > 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.
  - Angostura 9y ago
    People really didn't go to a phonebox to phone the babysitter, though.
    - PhasmaFelis 9y ago
      They did.
    - dragonwriter 9y ago
      Yes, they really did. Both when I was the baby-sat and, years later, when I was the baby sitter. Though more likely about an unexpected delay or need that was omitted in prior communication than just a check-in, IME.
DrScump 9y ago
checking how the babysitter is doing with the kids ...in which case you would simply walk out to the lobby and tap the case on any unlocking base.
Theodores 9y ago
I spent my whole teenage babysitting, half a dozen regular gigs and also for families in holiday homes. Not once was there a situation where I needed to call the parents or vice-versa. I suppose they have guns in America so maybe you do need to worry about the kids being SWAT raided or kidnapped. However, the general idea is that the parents go out, drink loads of alcohol and come back around 3 a.m. to be hungover the next morning. Meanwhile, the deal the kids struck with the babysitter was a simple one - they could stay up as late as they wanted just so long as they pretended to be asleep if mummy and daddy come back early. The next morning the kids sleep in and everyone is happy. So you have to let go. Trust the babysitter. Trust your seven year old daughter to try and stay up extra late by showing the babysitter daddy's secret porn collection, hidden behind the antiquarian book collection but all too easy to find for an adventurous child. Of course none of these things or the strange noises the parents make in bed get to be an issue, you just pay babysitter and make them feel welcome and all is good. So Jack White is right.
- stuaxo 9y ago
  No idea why you are downvoted for this.
ThomPete 9y ago
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.
- Mithaldu 9y ago
  Why do you believe FYGM is an appropriate response?
  - ThomPete 9y ago
    Because any leisure is a personal choice which you can choose to do or not if you really are worried that you can't get in contact with your nanny then don't go to the concert where they require you to not bring it, don't go to the movies, don't go anywhere you can loose connection and don't go flying. It's perfectly fine if you don't want to take that chance but it's hardly an argument for why someone shouldn't do a show where they ban cellphones.

lobf 9y ago

Being available for work is part of my "human experience." edit- I really don't understand why this is downvote worthy...

nicky0 9y ago
Because it is pathetic. You're available for work while at a Chris Rock show?
- lobf 9y ago
  ...pathetic, thanks. I work freelance film production. I get calls for work at random hours and if I don't respond quickly that offer can expire. I also work on high-pressure, quick turnaround jobs a lot, and part of the deal as a freelancer is that I'm always available. As a result, I keep my phone with me. I'm sorry that my earning a living is pathetic to you.
  - nicky0 9y ago
    Apology accepted.
- Spivak 9y ago
  You've never worked a job where you might be called in during an emergency? We're in a forum full of sysadmins and devops people and this idea is foreign?
  - gsich 9y ago
    Sysadmins and devops people usually have a standby rotation.
- dang 9y ago
  Name-calling isn't allowed in comments here. Could you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not do this again?

loeg 9y ago

Checking phones is part of the human experience.

to_bpr 9y ago
Compulsive, addiction driven behaviour due to the gamification of apps and basic services? I say let's remove that from our experience.
- loeg 9y ago
  You're free to make your own choices, but not to inflect them on others.
  - to_bpr 9y ago
    The perfect argument against allowing people access to their phones at performances.
  - trgv 9y ago
    Of course it's not quite that simple. People using phones at a concert affects everyone's experience. This is a godsend for some of us. It absolutely detracts from my experience in theaters, concerts, shows, etc when everyone has a phone out. My feeling is that this is a valid choice for artists to make, and if you disagree then avoid shows where this is the policy.
  - masonic 9y ago
    This is exactly why performers seek to stop video recording in the first place. Or part of why. There are several motivators: 1) use of the recording that could cost paying attendance in the future (e.g. copyright issues) 2) damage control of statements that they regret later (e.g. Michael Richards' racist rant) 3) Protection of the interests of all the attendees positioned behind and around you. When anybody is recording, view from directly behind is outright obscured, and the experience of everybody behind you, where you are in their field of view at all, is impaired by this lit-up screen facing them. People who are recording are inflicting their choice on all others behind them.

kbenson 9y ago

I think the counterpoint is that for some people, the more human experience is not a selling point, and actually a fairly large negative. Beyond the points laid out before, I have multiple children and multiple pets, and I'm the some person responsible for the technology stack at my small company which (means I'm on call for somewhat infrequent but not unheard of issues). Not being allowed my phone might just mean "eh, it's irresponsible of me to go" depending on the situation, and that's with my phone safely ensconced in my pocket except for an emergency. Also, let's not let this "human" experience stuff slide, what it really means is "a late 1990's to early 2000's experience". It's not like pyrotechnics, large screens and giant electronic speakers are anything you would experience prior to 100 years ago. If you don't want people doing certain things with their phones, then make it clear what is and isn't acceptable and combat it directly. For example, give everyone a wristband, and explain exactly what it's for. It's your one warning/get out of etiquette jail free card. If they have to come and tell you to stop doing something you were already warned about, they take the wristband. If they have to tell you again, you're out.

ThomPete 9y ago
Then perhaps that show isn't for them.
gkya 9y ago
The most annoying thing with phones is that they distract other people. You might be kind enough to not use your phone during a collective event, but other people are not. Frankly I don't care about it in a concert as you go there for the music most of the time, but I've seen people have use phones in every single movie I saw at a cinema and at every single theatre play I've been to, even in post-modern shows in tiny venues with much less than 50 seats. There are lots of idiots that can't look at something interesting without capturing it in photo and video, distracting everybody including the performers, who may indeed not want the performance recorded. A comment higher up says treat people like adults. Adults are not adult adults. They are more like monkeys that compulsively do things and then maybe, only maybe think if what they did was appropriate or not.
culot 9y ago
You cannot expect hardened smartphone addicts to follow directives that crossgrain their addiction. The only reason harsh policies like this are being enacted is because wrist-slaps and pleas do not work. It basically boils down to: if you want to go to the concert, you set aside the smartphone for a while. If not, don't go. > what it really means is "a late 1990's to early 2000's experience" Calling it a 'human experience' seems rather apt. When you're plugged into your smartphone frequently, you're not plugged into now; when you're playing on your computer instead of experiencing your immediate surroundings, it'd be more apt that to say that you're not partaking in the human experience, but an internet experience. 'Human experience' is apt, just like 'internet experience' would be apt for those that choose computer interaction.