I recently got to see the Chainsmokers in concert this past weekend, and I thought it was a decent concert. They played a fairly long set, about an hour and a half, playing late (or early?) into the night until two in the morning. By the end of it, I had a nice sweat going and joined the frenzy of fans exiting the venue. It was fun. I got to dance to their famous songs "Roses" and "Closer," as well as enjoy some of their remixes to "Panda" by Desiigner and "Gold Dust" by Flux Pavilion. The concert was incredibly upbeat the whole time, and while it was definitely a rush of adrenaline, one thing kept me from enjoying the concert fully - phones.

Imagine going to a concert featuring one of your favorite artists in the world, visiting your city for the first time in history, and you paying upwards of one hundred dollars because you heard about the concert a tad late. Whatever - when it’s your favorite artist, you’re willing to pay more. The concert is packed with people - at least half of them are drunk and ready to go, and the other half’s anticipation is growing intensely. You yourself have a nice buzz going from a few shots you forced yourself to take to raise the hype and excitement.

The venue has an opener, and he or she plays seemingly forever, before leaving the stage and the lights dim down further, eliciting shouts and yells from the crowd for the main act. You can hardly contain your excitement despite not being in the very front row. And then it begins. Your favorite band comes on stage, and starts playing their opener, and you’re seeing them live. You’re seeing them in person, for the first and possibly last time ever. Your eyes widen and you shout their name, and then all of a sudden you can’t see them anymore. Something’s hindering your view - a phone screen. Someone (seemingly everyone) has taken out their phones to take a SnapChat to add to their story or show off to their friends, and you’re left seeing the opening song on someone else’s phone screen.

But you don't worry, everyone eventually finishes their photos and snaps and puts their phones away, and you go back to enjoying the concert. But then as soon as the next song starts, everyone lifts up their phones again, to take yet another snap. This happens continually throughout the concert, and you leave somewhat dissatisfied. You still had a good time - it’s your favorite artist, it’s hard to be disappointed. But it could’ve been so much better. If only you didn’t experience half the concert through someone else’s phone.

Which brings me to my point - what is the point? Do you really need to take a picture, video, or SnapChat of every single song? Do you need a picture of the same people and the same colored lights thirty different times? More importantly, do you ever look at these photos ever again? Maybe I’m wrong here, maybe you do. In my own experience, photos and videos I take at concerts end up being too poor a quality to end up re-watching, and I don’t feel the need to keep them afterwards - the concert live was enough. And if it was a good concert, it should be enough.

Look, don’t get me wrong, a few photos or videos is fine. But please don’t worry about capturing the entire damn concert. Just watch them perform. When I see a SnapChat story queued up with concert videos, I don’t watch all of it. Why? After a point, it doesn’t really matter. I can’t even tell what’s happening on the screen, and the audio blows out my speakers. I understand, you are watching this artist live. That’s honestly great. But from what I can tell by your story, I’m seeing just as much of the concert as you are, and I didn’t have to pay. The artists are there in front of your own eyes, putting on a performance for you right now, not for your friends or for you to re-watch later. And I'm sure the artists would rather see your bright and happy faces than your phone flashes. So please, enjoy the concert. This has been a public service announcement.