Do It For the Gram

There is an age old quote that goes: “If you had a chai latte and didn’t Instagram it, did you really have a chai latte?” Essentially summing our generation today.



I was recently watching the VMA’s and Maroon 5 was performing and the camera pans to the audience and all you saw were phones high up in the air trying to get a good visual of the hunky lead singer or the eccentric guitar player. Don’t get me wrong, documentation of an experience is a wonderful thing to do, but to watch a live performance through the tiny monitor on your phone isn't the best way to experience music. I think that our generation today has this mentality that there always has to be proof that you did something. It could be a subconscious thing to pull out your phone snap a pic and the next day you’re bragging to your friend about how you met Lana while traipsing through 14th st which will unknowingly lead to racking up likes on Instagram. That satisfaction to be acknowledged fuels up a person to continually be on their phones, trying to catch the newest hookups making sure that you are always one step ahead. 

Going back to that whole concert thing, its crazy to think that people will pay top dollar for the best seats to only end up watching the whole live performance through their phones. Documentation is key, I must admit, I have spent some times at a concert just trying to take one picture forgetting the actual performance with the mentality of, “Oh, this would make a great pic for the gram,” which I cringe just thinking about. People pay these absurd amounts of money for a great experience and never actually experiencing it. I mean if you pay $200 for floor seats at a concert shouldn't you at least enjoy and absorb what is going around you? 

I also wonder about what the performers feel about people having their phones up constantly instead of waving their arms or cheering along. Do they feel saddened that people aren’t enjoying music like they used to? Or do they feel a greater amount of phones means that they’re doing their job properly? The concert scene has changed from putting your lighters/ glowsticks up to putting your phone flashlight on. This is also an indication of how our generation has been interconnected with the digital world and how we are slowly consumed by it. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all concert goers are like this, but a majority of teens don’t enjoy live music like the way our parents used to and for that I am saddened.