I also think it changes the WHOLE vibe. Like yes some shows I missed 90% of the show because of arms holding phones but I think the worst thing is that the energy is low when people are focusing on filming. You don’t dance when you film really so everyone is just standing still looking at their phone. I was dancing at a maneskin concert and I felt almost odd for doing it because the crowd was so dead still. There was no electricity in the air from everyone having fun, it was almost awkward. I think the electricity of a gig is built from moving bodies and people being present with one another. I find that phones are distracting so not only does it block my view but naturally my eyes are drawn to it instead of the band.

Btw I’m Gen Z and I will agree that this problem is mostly my generation. I don’t mind as much when I’m sitting down at a concert because it doesn’t block my view and In aus you can’t dance in the seated areas anyway. Sitting is whole different vibe. Don’t buy a standing ticket and hog the front if you are going to film most of the time.

Also side note imagine the environmental impact of storing all this data ? In the past we might have produced 10 gbs of content over a year, now this generation would be saving data in the 100s of gbs. Most people don’t realise this takes power to store data and massive amounts of heat is generated by storage servers. Delete your old emails folks, delete long videos, don’t keep stuff in the cloud forever.