[HN Gopher] The Dance Floor Is Disappearing in a Sea of Phones
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The Dance Floor Is Disappearing in a Sea of Phones
Author : blondie9x
Score : 55 points
Date : 2026-02-22 12:41 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bloomberg.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bloomberg.com)
| rumori wrote:
| Berghain puts stickers on your phone cameras, it's pretty non
| intrusive while substantially improving the party experience. I
| didn't see a single phone in the air on the dancefloor. It was
| quite refreshing, felt like partying in the 2000s.
| phrotoma wrote:
| I went to a show at Fabric in London during Kubecon last spring
| and they did the same thing. I still saw the odd person who
| peeled it off taking selfies or pics of friends inside but that
| was definitely the exception.
| retired wrote:
| Perhaps it can be enforced with a type of laser that doesn't
| damage the human eye but completely obliterates a phone
| camera. As long as you keep the sticker on nothing happens to
| your phone.
| OneMorePerson wrote:
| I've seen this in Asia, there's an employee who basically
| is standing at a raised spot in the corner and if you take
| out your phone they shoot a small laser pointer right into
| the camera, it messes with the video. They can't get it on
| there all the time but a video where half of it (or more
| they are surprisingly accurate) is a strobing laser becomes
| pretty garbage anyways. While they are doing that another
| employee/bouncer comes over and warns them, have seen
| people get kicked out for pulling it out a second time.
| krisoft wrote:
| > a type of laser that doesn't damage the human eye but
| completely obliterates a phone camera
|
| If we are asking for impossible things why make it so scifi
| coded? I would much prefer cute bunny unicorns who suddenly
| grow fangs and bite people who are taking pictures. They
| are both equaly realistic but the bunny unicorns are nicer
| to think of.
| collinmcnulty wrote:
| Certain kinds of lidar do damage phone cameras
| https://www.jalopnik.com/1866994/lidar-permanently-
| damage-ph...
| jbaiter wrote:
| It's pretty much the norm in all "proper" German
| techno/electronic music clubs I've been to, Berlin and
| elsewhere.
| GuestFAUniverse wrote:
| Cool. Now do that at the entrance to swimming pools too.
|
| Has become a pest. Even inside. Even directly at or in the
| water. No matter what the signs say.
|
| At least regarding that I miss the last millennium: no
| omnipresence of cameras. Not a bunch of entitled pseudo-
| influencers filming everything and everyone.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| This is mentioned in the article:
|
| > More clubs have also been instituting "no phones" policies to
| reclaim the dance floor's social energy. Venues including
| Signal, a small club that opened last year in Brooklyn's East
| Williamsburg neighborhood, and recent addition Refuge, located
| just around the corner, cover all phone cameras with a sticker.
| Other larger, established venues like House of Yes and
| Elsewhere have also banned the use of phones inside.
| zo7 wrote:
| It's becoming more common in SF and LA too, although it's
| usually done by the promoter and not the venue.
| blinding-streak wrote:
| https://archive.ph/6YKLN
| mellosouls wrote:
| A non-paywalled discussion on the subject from a year ago:
|
| _Nightclub stickers over smartphone rule divides the dancefloor
| (85 points, 91 comments)_
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42352825
|
| I've never understood the appeal of so-called "dance" events.
|
| Crowds of thousands like sardines swaying-at-best to the DJ being
| treated as a rockstar but without the talent and entertainment as
| far as I can see.
|
| Note: this isn't a rockist viewpoint; I'm a dancer who is
| frustrated at the lack of options to actually move about in space
| on a dancefloor with other dancers who are there to actually, you
| know, _dance_.
|
| I hate the way the word has been co-opted by what appears to be a
| generation of drugged-out sheep who seem incapable of soulful
| movement.
| georgeecollins wrote:
| Dancing is fun. Dancing in a crowd is freeing because you feel
| less self conscious. I encourage my kids to dance. DJs.. I
| don't know. I guess I grew up in an era when they weren't
| stars.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| The attention economy requires sacrificial likes, lest you lose
| followers. People can't just enjoy themselves, they need to
| generate FOMO or do/show something outrageous in front of a
| camera 24/7.
| expedition32 wrote:
| I grew up in the 90s and we already had XTC. (Funny story about
| that it was invented by an actual chemist student like a real
| life "Breaking Bad")
| whackernews wrote:
| Just regarding the drugs: I can totally understand when people
| are anti-drugs. I'd say it still depends on someone's
| personality though. I've always thought that drugs and alcohol
| don't really change your personality they just amplify it. If
| someone's not really a dancer and maybe a bit anxious
| (seemingly every kid these days) they end up taking a load of
| drugs to compensate but just end up vegetated. If you're
| already someone who feels the music and feels free enough to
| dance then honestly taking some drugs can be quite the
| experience.
| mellosouls wrote:
| Yeah my point is really about how the drugs now seem to be a
| necessary catalyst for the communal experience they are going
| for - but what they are going for isn't dance in the sense of
| moving about in creative _individual_ physical expression.
|
| Whereas the dance scenes I've formerly attended were heavy in
| drug use but the main thing people are there for is dancing.
| whackernews wrote:
| Yeh. I mean I ultimately completely agree with your last
| paragraph. Society seems to have shifted and no amount of
| lasers and drugs is able to make people move! Also to your
| point moving actually takes up a lot of space and, thus,
| less tickets. It's really better for maximising profits if
| people don't move and ideally advertise the event for you.
| phrotoma wrote:
| Sounds like you agree with TFA:
|
| > "Nobody was asking for the screen to be bigger. Nobody was
| asking for more production, more lasers. Literally, the number
| one complaint every year was, 'Hey, you guys are overselling
| these shows, we want more room to dance.'"
| rayiner wrote:
| My seven year old boy likes to spin in circles. I think he
| likes the stimulation from the inner ear fluid sloshing around.
| Dancing in a club seems similar.
| mellosouls wrote:
| (Parent comment) Me too! But that's my point, you can't spin
| or do anything at these events, except for small pockets at
| the fringes; dancers are outliers now.
| LeanderK wrote:
| you know that people really go there to dance and enjoy the
| music?
|
| A friend of mine is a professional (modern) dancer, so has as
| much credentials as you can, and she enjoys dancing in berlins
| nightlife. She finds the space for expression and creativity in
| her movement, in tune with the music. Of course, the is not
| much physical space, which is how the dance-movements evolved
| as they have (e.g you never spin and you feet never really
| leave the space they are on). But this is part of the culture,
| and not a problem. If you can't find it then that's your
| problem, but doesn't mean that other's can not freely express
| themselves there.
|
| There's more dance-events. Not sure where you are, but you can
| usually go to a bachata night as it's quite trendy now,
| northern soul is also getting some revivial. There's also more
| disco-oriented events usually at various LGBTQ+-parties, I
| think especially italo-disco is a lot of fun. You can just go
| out and dance. Lindy Hop also has a solid community around the
| world.
| mellosouls wrote:
| Thanks - yes I'm aware of most of those (my handle here is a
| northern soul record) and do attend but they are relatively
| niche and I resent the current way mainstream dance music
| events are presented to the world as something that seems
| counter to the notion.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Search youtube for laserface and gareth emery. The sea of phones
| are all recording the stage. So they are the same color as the
| show. They turn the otherewise dark audience into a reflection,
| adding to the effect. This is not a bad thing.
|
| As for dancing, dancing is for clubs. Clubs are not concert
| halls. You _dance_ at a club. You _watch_ a show at a hall. Only
| DJ-types who are confused about whether they are record-spinning
| robots or stars in a spotlight cannot tell the difference.
|
| https://youtu.be/9-ochJEQpb0
| retired wrote:
| Perhaps they could have communicated beforehand that the
| performance would be available for free on YouTube afterwards,
| so that people don't need to record.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| But the official footage will not be the same as the show as
| you lived it. The effects look radically different from seat
| to seat. And your friends wont be there either.
| margalabargala wrote:
| This assumes that the recording from the audience will
| actually be watched ever.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Here is the thing, I still remember when there was no
| recording, what happens in the venue stays in the venue, or
| gets talked with others that shared the experience.
| dangus wrote:
| That was in the era of $10 shows.
|
| If I am paying $700 to see Lady Gaga you bet your ass I'm
| taking some pictures.
|
| I actually find k-pop shows somewhat refreshing because
| there's zero negative stigma for wanting to record pictures
| or video. I can easily tell that Gen Z/Alpha has no problem
| enjoying themselves and even dancing while recording a
| video.
|
| If a phone is blocking your view the venue is designed
| wrong, or you have the rare concertgoer who doesn't know
| how to hold their phone in a way that preserves the view
| for others, which is rare for the younger audiences. (I
| don't go to venues with flat floors anymore. Often they
| weren't even designed for concerts in the first place).
| pjmlp wrote:
| For what, to say "I was there"?
| moritzwarhier wrote:
| I'm mostly too old to go to clubs, but to me techno and other
| electronic music is not about stages or visual effects, quite
| the opposite. Well OK, VFX can be cool.
|
| But getting lost in music, in a darkened room with some
| intentionally disorienting VFX; or simply none, loud electronic
| music in a room with many people is already quite an
| experience...
|
| that's quite different from being at a festival or at a show
| like this, which looks more like a musical opera performance to
| me.
|
| For big room EDM, was there ever a time when it was not about
| laser shows etc?
|
| I mean there's nothing wrong with stage shows, pop music and
| lasers.
| thinkingemote wrote:
| The phone is a kind of shield for the person holding it above
| their head. It safely removes them from having to fully engage
| with what's in front of them.
|
| The camera both removes the person from the scene and also by
| recording enables the event to be captured in a format to be
| reviewed again. The videos are never actually intended to be
| watched again or shared with friends though but they are proof
| that the person was physically there (if not wholly present).
|
| There was a video I recently saw about how birthday parties
| should be filmed. Instead of a video of just the birthday girl in
| front of a cake reacting to her friends singing happy birthday,
| she takes the camera, flips it so we don't see her anymore but we
| see her friends singing facing her with faces full of love.
| thundergolfer wrote:
| Experiencing life not as living but as an anticipated memory.
| ur-whale wrote:
| https://archive.is/6YKLN
| bjackman wrote:
| Er... Source for this claim?
|
| If there are people filming on their dancefloor you're in a
| shitty club.
|
| OK, so the author and a handful of people they quite (including
| some global superstars who obviously don't represent any kind of
| norm) seem to be finding themselves in shitty clubs more often
| than they used to. And therefore we conclude all clubs are shitty
| now?
|
| Nightlife is the least heterogeneous and least globalised form of
| public life that exists in "the west". If someone thinks they can
| make sweeping statements about the state of raving writ large, I
| don't really take them seriously.
| tw04 wrote:
| We have Mets glasses now, you don't even have to pull a phone
| out.
| layer8 wrote:
| Maybe read the article? It's more nuanced.
| infecto wrote:
| Anyone else that has been outside in the past 10 years can see
| it. Doesn't have to be dancing it can be eating in a
| restaurant, going to a public pool, walking down the street.
| Younger folks absolutely are feeling the sense of everything
| being recorded. It sucks because you don't know what will pop
| up online so a lot will not do anything (swim, dance, do
| anything moderately weird).
| bpavuk wrote:
| I remember being on a concert relatively recently, a few years
| ago. nearly everyone had their phones up, mine was in a pocket.
| no one made a single movement that resembled dance, everyone
| just... stood still. that differed by a great measure from
| several concerts I attended circa 2018-19.
|
| on both music fests, I was in flow. I've been dancing - it's a
| usual thing all humans naturally do when they hear rhythm that
| resonates with them unless they consciously resist dancing for
| one reason or another. though, this time, no one joined me.
| people just made space around me and pointed their cameras at me,
| which created a ton of unease and I eventually stopped. it was
| enough to get viral in local Telegrams, but I had no joy in that.
| in the moment, I wanted to shout, "duh, why aren't you all
| dancing? put down your goddamn cameras, you can always scroll
| later!"
|
| phones, primarily due to their current addictive implementation,
| are such a killjoy. I hope that one day, devices like Clicks
| Communicator will change this.
| blinding-streak wrote:
| Bloomberg is an interesting news outlet. My whole life I thought
| of them as purely financial-based reporting. But I've seen lots
| of lifestyle stuff from them too. And usually well written and
| interesting angles.
|
| Maybe journalism isn't totally dead yet.
| bpavuk wrote:
| > Maybe journalism isn't totally dead yet.
|
| it never was, nor will ever be :)
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