DOUG'S SMARTPHONE RANT
DOUG'S SMARTPHONE RANT
AT THE RISK OF OFFENDING some of our die-hard fans, I'm gonna try to explain why that blue flicker cast on your faces at the dances irks me so much.
But first a couple quick words about an all-too-familiar sight - that of seeing a person's face glued to his or her smartphone and a newly-coined acronym: FoMO.
Wikipedia's definition of FoMO is:
"Fear of missing out or FoMO is ‘a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent’. This social angst is characterized by ‘a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing’ . . ."
Wikipedia goes on to state:
"Fear of missing out (FoMO) refers to the apprehension that one is not in-the-know or one is out of touch with some social events, experiences, and interactions. People who grapple with FoMO might not know exactly what they are missing but can still hold a fear that others are having a much better time or having a much more rewarding experience on the spur of the moment. FoMO could result from a variety of social activities in which one is absent, such as a conversation, a TV show, a wedding, a party, or a delicious restaurant in town . . ."
An article in Psychology Today citing the 2013 Przybylski study on FoMO states:
" . . . those who reported high levels of FoMO also scored low on satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness). High levels of FoMO were also associated with lower levels of life satisfaction and positive mood; and those who scored high in FoMO were more likely to use social media immediately before sleep, upon waking, and during both meal times and their university lectures."
OK, I get it. It's great to be "connected." Being a tech guy, I've always been the first to get the latest and greatest gizmo. Be it a phone answering machine, a CB radio, a bag phone or a home PC, I've always been the first kid on the block to explore new technologies.
It's a good thing to be able to communicate with others in as close to real-time as possible. So over the years, all those phone messages and emails have sure helped me keep in touch. These gadgets have been especially helpful in my business - no more missed gigs or wrong dates & times. It's all right there in black and white, archived on tape or digitized.
But I began noticing a curious thing in recent years. While everyone was graduating from flip phones to smartphones, I found myself perfectly content to stick with the older technology. And while observing people frantically reaching for their chiming phones in mid-sentence, I felt fine letting my voice mail grab the message.
I mean really, how did we ever survive before cell phones!?
So now, for the last three or four years, I've seen this tethering phenomenon escalate to an obsessive level. I see people of all ages (not just kids) coming to our gigs - in some cases paying anywhere from $8 to $12 for admission - only to sit there virtually all night with his or her head locked in to their smartphone. From the stage I can see their expressionless faces dimly lit by the flickering blue glow of their screens.
The mind boggles.
I want to ask them four questions:
1) Just who are you communicating with? And why don't you simply invite them to the dance where you could easily have an actual CONVERSATION replete with eye contact and social cues?
2) What's so important that you must spend virtually your entire evening tethered to Facebook or a text screen? Has it occurred to you that there might possibly be some interesting conversation and/or social interaction right there AT THE DANCE?!
3) What's the worst that could happen if you'd simply put the phone on vibrate, stash it in your pocket (or purse) and enjoy the people and music right there in front of you at the club? (With the phone put away you'd still be reachable in case that 1-in-a-billion emergency occurred.)
4) And finally, why did you even come to the dance in the first place when you could have checked your Facebook and texted just as easily in the comfort of your own home? You could have saved yourself a cover charge and some gas expense, if you'd just stayed on the couch!
Or course what I describe above is ubiquitous, 21st-century behavior occurring not just at our dances but everywhere you look - restaurants, lectures, bookstores, at the park and by drivers in moving cars!!!
I don't pretend to understand all the psycho-social and cultural ramifications, but I do know that it irks me to no end!
So that's my smartphone rant. I'll be interested in your thoughts.
But first a couple quick words about an all-too-familiar sight - that of seeing a person's face glued to his or her smartphone and a newly-coined acronym: FoMO.
Wikipedia's definition of FoMO is:
"Fear of missing out or FoMO is ‘a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent’. This social angst is characterized by ‘a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing’ . . ."
Wikipedia goes on to state:
"Fear of missing out (FoMO) refers to the apprehension that one is not in-the-know or one is out of touch with some social events, experiences, and interactions. People who grapple with FoMO might not know exactly what they are missing but can still hold a fear that others are having a much better time or having a much more rewarding experience on the spur of the moment. FoMO could result from a variety of social activities in which one is absent, such as a conversation, a TV show, a wedding, a party, or a delicious restaurant in town . . ."
An article in Psychology Today citing the 2013 Przybylski study on FoMO states:
" . . . those who reported high levels of FoMO also scored low on satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness). High levels of FoMO were also associated with lower levels of life satisfaction and positive mood; and those who scored high in FoMO were more likely to use social media immediately before sleep, upon waking, and during both meal times and their university lectures."
OK, I get it. It's great to be "connected." Being a tech guy, I've always been the first to get the latest and greatest gizmo. Be it a phone answering machine, a CB radio, a bag phone or a home PC, I've always been the first kid on the block to explore new technologies.
It's a good thing to be able to communicate with others in as close to real-time as possible. So over the years, all those phone messages and emails have sure helped me keep in touch. These gadgets have been especially helpful in my business - no more missed gigs or wrong dates & times. It's all right there in black and white, archived on tape or digitized.
But I began noticing a curious thing in recent years. While everyone was graduating from flip phones to smartphones, I found myself perfectly content to stick with the older technology. And while observing people frantically reaching for their chiming phones in mid-sentence, I felt fine letting my voice mail grab the message.
I mean really, how did we ever survive before cell phones!?
So now, for the last three or four years, I've seen this tethering phenomenon escalate to an obsessive level. I see people of all ages (not just kids) coming to our gigs - in some cases paying anywhere from $8 to $12 for admission - only to sit there virtually all night with his or her head locked in to their smartphone. From the stage I can see their expressionless faces dimly lit by the flickering blue glow of their screens.
The mind boggles.
I want to ask them four questions:
1) Just who are you communicating with? And why don't you simply invite them to the dance where you could easily have an actual CONVERSATION replete with eye contact and social cues?
2) What's so important that you must spend virtually your entire evening tethered to Facebook or a text screen? Has it occurred to you that there might possibly be some interesting conversation and/or social interaction right there AT THE DANCE?!
3) What's the worst that could happen if you'd simply put the phone on vibrate, stash it in your pocket (or purse) and enjoy the people and music right there in front of you at the club? (With the phone put away you'd still be reachable in case that 1-in-a-billion emergency occurred.)
4) And finally, why did you even come to the dance in the first place when you could have checked your Facebook and texted just as easily in the comfort of your own home? You could have saved yourself a cover charge and some gas expense, if you'd just stayed on the couch!
Or course what I describe above is ubiquitous, 21st-century behavior occurring not just at our dances but everywhere you look - restaurants, lectures, bookstores, at the park and by drivers in moving cars!!!
I don't pretend to understand all the psycho-social and cultural ramifications, but I do know that it irks me to no end!
So that's my smartphone rant. I'll be interested in your thoughts.
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