Forbes shared my thoughts on how social media and smartphones are changing the concert experience.
"Whether or not they should coexist, they do. Smartphones invading musical experiences are inevitable, but so are creative solutions. Some artists request that pictures and videos only be taken during the first few songs. A start-up called Yondr distributes cases for phones that auto-lock once the concert starts, giving fans the peace of keeping phones on their person while removing the temptation to use them. Yondr advertises phone-free hands in the air celebrating a collective, almost tribal, human experience under the slogan “Be Here Now.”
The American Authors show left me disconcerted. Bright screens attached to waving arms looked like some kind of extraterrestrial seabed, or the luminescent Tree of Souls in Avatar. I took a few videos, but did not feel the need to prove I was there. Four dynamic artists lost their voices proving that to me. Maybe other audience members engaged in the concert through their social and camera apps, but I did not feel present until my iPhone was in my pocket. I told myself be here now. I’ll remember."