On a recent episode of Joe Rogan Experience, Maynard James Keenan tells the host why he hates the ubiquitous sight of cell phones in the air at concerts. He wants you to live in the moment.
This stuff annoys me – because I’m a firm believer in oral tradition. I embrace the storytelling – being able to describe to your friends that, sitting around that fire after a good long day of hunting. Where you tell the story about hunt and you do all those things, and those family stories, and your grandfather, and your great-grandfather’s stories are told in that setting. And you’re not writing it down. It’s a tradition of understanding the details and being able to explain and expand on the details from your recollection of what you saw.
“But if you have no skills in absorbing what you saw, if you rely on this thing [holds up a phone] to capture their stories for you… First of all, nothing you’re gonna get at a show is gonna represent what you just saw, or what you were there for.
As a postcard I suppose it works. But stay present! Stay with these people to be there for this thing. That’s far more important. Also, as courtesy, maybe the person behind you would like to be that person who’s enjoying this and now your shit’s in their way.
Put your damn cellphone down, and watch the whole episode of the Joe Rogan Experience below:
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