Ban on cell phones at concerts: get rid of those things?

I have a few photos and short videos on my phone from every concert I've been to over the last few years. You can see blurry shots of the band or singer, with lots of cell phones in the foreground. Will I ever watch it again? No. Do they convey the feeling of the concert, the magic of the moment back then? No. Why did I make them? The answer is probably: I had my cell phone with me and wanted to capture something. And: It felt like everyone was filming.

Cell phones have become a real plague at concerts. Everyone wants to quickly capture that one great moment every now and then, and then – oops! - another message has come that you want to read quickly, and why not send a video to your friend who unfortunately can't be there? Smartphones are omnipresent, which changes the event for everyone.

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You could remember the concert better if you had fully immersed yourself in it - without filming. If you simply absorb what you have experienced and save it yourself.

I understand that smartphones also annoy artists. There is a difference whether an enthusiastic crowd is cheering, clapping, dancing, or whether half of them are filming and the singers are mainly looking at the apparatus. The cell phones create a barrier. The solution: small bags in which the phone has to be locked during the concert. You have it with you, but you can't access it.

Brilliant! Please introduce it across the board for all concerts and all events where it is worth paying full attention to what is happening. Two hours of digital detox are included. You didn't have any bad videos, but you did experience something great.

Imagine you took the afternoon off to spend nerve-wracking hours in a ticket agent queue, shelled out hundreds of euros through gritted teeth, booked an overpriced hotel, traveled across the country in an ICE train with failed air conditioning to see this one artist, this one band, on their now-but-really farewell tour, theirs We've-made-up-but-who-knows-how-long tour, her-after-this-tour-I'm-diving-off-indefinitely-tour. So you've given up your last nerve and your last shirt - only for someone to hand you a sealable bag when you get in and have you put your cell phone in it like a seventh grader?

Announcements from the top, they say, it's much nicer to store the memories in the brain instead of in the cloud. It's not just as a person with a bad memory that I say: bullshit! Concert videos are the favorite genre in my camera roll and social media feed. They preserve in small snippets an event that has become an absolute luxury item - and at the same time make it accessible to people who could not afford the financial and time resources for it.

This text first appeared in wochentaz, our weekly newspaper from the left!

Every week, wochentaz is about the world as it is – and as it could be. A left-wing weekly newspaper with a voice, attitude and the special taz view of the world. New every Saturday at the kiosk and of course by subscription.

Every day I enjoy scenes that people have captured elsewhere in multi-purpose halls around the world. Because who says that cell phones are always aimed at the stage? Recently, a clip went viral that showed Celine Dion playing air guitar between her sons at a Metallica concert in Las Vegas.

At first I laughed out loud. And then consider whether it's time to give heavy metal a chance.