Life is full of mysteries that leave us wondering and scratching our heads. Lice can also do this. But if you have a question about life, or even about lice, this is your chance to ask it. Just shoot me an email, at TippyGnu [at] gmx.com. Or, if you don’t feel like shooting me, you can ask the question in a comment.
Today’s question comes from Jason Frels, at the aptly named photography blog, Jason Frels. Jason loves cameras, and enjoys hiking way out in nature, where he takes stunning photos. But there’s one place where he wonders why people would use their cameras.
Just remember, there are no stupid questions. So here’s Jason’s:
I go to concerts sometimes and a particular human behavior perplexes me. Why do people that paid a bunch of money to experience a concert, take out their phones and spend their precious time there taking low quality video of the concert instead of enjoying it? If you wanted to watch a crappy video of the concert, you can probably find many on YouTube.
Categories: question
Chasing Unicorns 
Answer: Pure ignorance. Not only are they recording a questionable quality video, but they are also annoying people like me who paid good money to enjoy the concert …. not to have hundreds of little screens intruding on my view of the performing artists. Pure self-centred ignorance. I no longer go to concerts because of this annoying trend.
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Sounds like an ignorant tide that may be hard to turn. I don’t blame you for avoiding concerts, due to this. I’ve never experienced this phenomenon, because the last concert I attended occurred well before the invention of cell phones.
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It is distracting. I have looked around the audience and seen hundreds of phones sticking up, all recording the same thing with their tiny lenses too far away in the poor lighting to capture anything but grainy video with barely recognizable performers in it.
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Hi Jason – and just like your “Grad” example, there is usually a HQ video available of the performers. May not be at the same location but who cares, as surely the attraction is the performing artists!
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I went to a concert a couple of weekends ago and was excited to see a band that I had wanted to see live for about the last 20 years. I barely touched my phone as I just wanted to have the experience. It was a good concert and a lot of people spent a lot of time taking phone videos from out in the audience, but a lot of people danced and sang along too. So, I enjoyed going.
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My son just posted on Instagram a video clip from the concert he went to on Saturday. He wrote, “This clip I took from online, I didn’t record anything. I was too busy having the time of my life!” Our taste in music may vary greatly, but at least I passed onto him how to live in the moment! 🙂
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It would be kind of weird for you to have the same taste in music as your kids.
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Welll you do have a point there.. but there are a few songs we can agree on. He went to hear BearTooth, have you heard of them?
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No haven’t heard of them. We’re they born before 1990?
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LOL! Nope!
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I would love to know the answer to this one too!
Deb
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Then stick around. We’re sure to get some good ones from the smartasses who follow this blog.
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Because they want a memory to review later, or they just want to brag to friends that they were there, of course.
I’m on your side, though. Concert tickets are so costly that I can’t see spoiling the outing with much phone work.
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They must have rather poor memories. I attended a few concerts back in the ’70s and ’80s, and I still remember all of them very well. Not to brag, though.
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I had this thought when my first daughter graduated high school. I was preparing to be there with camera and long lens to capture the moments as she walked across stage and received her diploma, but the day before I thought “What the hell am I doing? I’m going to go there without camera, watch my daughter graduate, live the experience, and pay that professional photographer that is right there next to the stage for his photos.” And that is what I did.
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Good idea. I’ve found that having a camera with me, while trying to enjoy a hike, can make the hike more of a job than a pleasant event. So I usually leave my camera behind, except my cell phone camera. Which I use only if I see something very unusual.
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I have a “hiking camera” for this situation. It is not as big and heavy as my main camera, but it is still a very good camera (Nikon Z50). I do enjoy hiking but I might see something that I want to come back to and want to take some test photos of it to look at later. Or, I might see a chupacabra, I guess, whatever the heck that is. I sure hear about it a lot.
P.S. I took my kayak picture that I posted yesterday with my hiking camera.
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A chupacabra is a cross between a tornado and a cobra.
That’s a nice hiking camera.
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I think I had a chalupacabra once at a local restaurant. Whatever it was, it was smothered in refried beans and I didn’t end up in a hospital.
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I hope you wore your running shoes.
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You made the right decision, Dad. 🙂
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Thanks. Ever so often I stumble into the right decision.
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LOL! Yes, even stooges can make the right decision at times.
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I’m with you on both counts. A few years back we went on a trip that included walking on a glacier. We touched (and drank) glacier water, we smelled the fresh glacier air, we absorbed the views of the amazing (and shrinking) glacier, where it was pure and clean, where it was filthy and drab.
We took a few photos to remind us of the experience, but most of the time we spent… experiencing.
Most people around us spent most time taking selfies to post on insta and the such, and then dashed back to the bus.
I do think it’s sad that so many of us seem not to immerse ourselves in our experience but just document it for someone who isn’t with us and likely cares little to nothing about our experience. Sad.
I’ve always had bad memory, so I’m not familiar with another existence and don’t feel that’s sad, only a legitimate reason to take photos 🙂
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Perhaps the people taking all the photos of the glacier were hoping it would stay frozen in time. As a way to combat global warming.
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People just need to attend more memorable performances. No one take a phone out in a mosh-pit, unless they want it smashed to smithereens.
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I have been in 1 mosh pit and that will be my last one. I don’t get the appeal of a bunch of large drunk/stoned twentysomething year old sweaty men pounding into me on a dance floor. At least in football you get a helmet and pads. Anyway, not for me. (and no, my mind would not be changed were it a bunch of drunk/stoned twentysomething year old sweaty women.)
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To be honest, I’ll stay behind the melee… usually near the bar where I can drink my beer as opposed to wearing it. Regardless, still no phones blocking my view over the pit. What I don’t get is spending some ludicrous amount to sit a quarter-mile away from the musicians and listen to the sound through a PA. Might as well pull out the phone.
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I hate to admit it, but that might change my perverted mind.
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Maybe there is someone that might change it back for you.
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Perhaps with a rolling pin.
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I told my son that I could hit him if he wanted to pay me a big amount of money, after he told me about getting hit in the jaw while in the mosh pit. He didn’t go for that idea.
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You wouldn’t hit your son like that. You might throw something and try to hit me on the head, but not your baby boy.
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Not so fast. Everyone has their price.
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Haha! But I am gentle, mild mannered, I rarely show an aggressive side. 😊
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Uh-huh. And I’ve never been thunked before.
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When things fall from the sky and THUNK you on the head that may be Karma!
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Oh, her? I’ve heard Karma can be a real bitch.
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😂
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LOL! Yes, you are right. I should go along with him next time and be his body guard, not letting anyone hit my “baby!”
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My son would heartily agree with you! He just attended a concert on Saturday night and was telling us about the mosh pit. Not my idea of fun, but….he is young. 🙂
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Heh-heh. I think a mosh-pit would be rather memorable, though I’ve never been in one. To my memory.
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Mosh-pit, arm-pit,.. cramped, hot, smelly, same idea.
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Yet strangely exciting.
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Oh help!
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Yes, you make it sound sooo appealing!
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You probably got hit in the head too much and don’t remember!
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That’s probably happened to me before. Though I can’t remember.
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I don’t need to pay money to hurt myself. I can do that pretty well all on my own!
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Sometimes you hurt yourself just trying to spell words correctly.
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Like that crazy sphyg…thingamajig thing! 😜
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I hope when you tried to spell it you didn’t exacerbate your blood pressure.
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I agree. Its annoying and it makes no sense. I wonder how many people actually go back and watch what they recorded.
Try singing along real loud next time and maybe people would put their cameras down to look at you.
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I can understand your point of view. If you tried recording a concert with your up-raised cell phone, all you’d get would be the backs of everyone’s heads.
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Oh, you think she brought a step-stool to stand on?
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Or a pogo stick.
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My kids loved their pogo sticks, smartie!
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I guess fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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😶🤚!
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…mmm…!! Yeah, that would be sooo “helpful”
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Pfttttt!
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I would hate to upstage the performers with my deep melodious voice and I’ll tell you like I have told my youngest daughter: I do not want to be in some tik-tok video.
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So your deep, melodious voice goes with your luxurious hair, right? You could be a Tik Tok sensation.
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That is the risk that I am trying to mitigate.
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I am guessing it is so that the filmer can post the video to social media to prove that he was at the concert.
As I get (got?) older, I enjoy watching events on our TV, as opposed to going to the event, such as a sporting event. It’s much cheaper, it’s a better view, and it’s much more time efficient.
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Yes, the ol’ tried-and-true, watch-it-on-TV trick has worked for years. But now you can use your cell phone to video the TV screen, then show it to your friends while bragging that you were there. They’ll never be able to tell the difference.
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they could probably tell from the sound of my dog barking in the background…
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I have almost no interest in watching a concert on TV. I’d rather be there and be able to watch what I want to watch and take them in live with my ears. That said, there aren’t very many concerts that I want to attend.
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I agree; some concerts I would want to see live. But sporting events, I’m happier watching on TV…
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The people who work at the Louvre were saying that almost all of the people who come to see the painting just take a picture (usually a selfie), and then leave in less than 2 minutes. It could be so that they could see other paintings (you can’t see them all in one day even if you only spent five mins per painting). But it seems so odd to me that people don’t want to get a closer look than is allowed, too. But that’s a different subject altogether, isn’t it?
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With a zoom lens, maybe they can get a closer look.
I like taking photos of the places I go to. But one thing I hardly ever do is take a selfie. It takes too much time to compose, and I doubt there are many people who want to see my ugly face messing up a photo of a nice place. Hell, even I don’t want to see that.
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No selfie with the Mona Lisa when we were at the Louvre. We actually forgot to go look at the Mona Lisa. We were looking at everything else and enjoying the courtyard with the fountain and pigeons. Wasn’t until we got back on the tour bus and people started talking about the Mona Lisa that Brad and I looked at each other and were like, Oops! LOL!
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Oh well, maybe the Mona Lisa is overrated.
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I think it is, for the ones who saw it were complaining about how small the picture was.
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I’ve heard that it’s small. Reminds me of the time we saw Plymouth Rock. Instead of the big, giant boulder I imagined, it was only a stone about three feet long.
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Seriously? I was also imagining a big boulder, well guess I can scratch that off my list. LOL!
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Sorry about that, pilgrim.
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