Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong wants phones put away at concerts: "Let’s have a human experience"
Artists have been vocal about the cell phones at concert debate, and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong just made his statement on putting down your cell phone at a show.
“Social media can be a very miserable place to be,” Armstrong said at a recent Q&A event in London. “At our shows I see lot of people holding up cell phones. You can look at a screen at home; you can look at your computer or your phone anywhere.” (via NME)
Read more: Some fans now spend more than half the time at concerts on their phones
For Armstrong, cell phones are affecting the experience.
“You can take your picture but let’s have eye contact, let’s have a human experience right now you can’t capture on a cell phone,” Armstrong said, according to The Daily Star. “Why would you want to listen to your favorite song going like this [holds arm in air] when you can just hear it right in front of you? I feel like a little more human contact is good.”
And Armstrong is not the first artist to speak out on the topic.
Slipknot's Corey Taylor has been vocal on the use of phones at shows. At a concert this summer, Taylor was caught slapping a phone out of an unsuspecting fan’s hands. The attendee was front-row and looking at their device while Slipknot were mid-song.
Taylor later tweeted, “If you're gonna text, stay home,” and added, “It's actually funny—afterward, the dude TOTALLY understood the fuck up and we laughed together.”
If you're gonna text, stay home. https://t.co/w8BLHWci5n
— Hate Will Not Win (@CoreyTaylorRock) July 10, 2016
Right on man. It's actually funny- afterward, the dude TOTALLY understood the fuck up and we laughed together haha. https://t.co/8ZA8CZmE4L
— Hate Will Not Win (@CoreyTaylorRock) July 10, 2016
Fair enough. But you might wanna do it between sets or between songs. Am I right? https://t.co/JYy08vxHNg
— Hate Will Not Win (@CoreyTaylorRock) July 10, 2016
Read more: This is what happens when you take a stage selfie at an Every Time I Die show
During the Maine’s set at Warped Tour, frontman John O'Callaghan stopped mid-song to ask fans to be in the moment and put their phones away.
“All the people with their phones out, put them in your purses, put them in your fucking pockets for just two minutes and 46 seconds,” O'Callaghan said during “Growing Up.”
“Be here right-fucking-now with us. Not on your fucking computer—put your computer in your pocket please. This is a goddamn event. We're all here, socializing. We're not on fucking snapchat—they can watch if they want to come fucking watch it.”
A study by TicketFly in 2015 found out that adults spend more than hald of their time at concerts on phones. This summer, Apple received a patent that could potentially disable phones during shows using infrared signal camera technology.
What are your thoughts on cell phone use at concerts? Let us know in the comments.
