We're in a global market now where
someone like Martin Garrix who made music in his bedroom was headlining stages
in America, Asia, Australia and that's the power of the Internet. You see it when
people go to clubs and they're filming you're there you're watching the set but
you're watching it through a screen. It's mad.
I think the curse of the social media glare is there's no escape and there's
also the accusation of being manufactured. For the majority of people
you've got to have this presence and you've got to be promoting your
personality as well as your music.
The fact is if I'm looking at new talent I
look at their social media and I make a judgement. The best thing about social
media is the discussion it can create. Social media is also perhaps the best
feedback tool in the world for all the likes you're gonna get which you're
going to hit that dopamine trigger which are going to make you feel great
you know that a week later someone else is going to come back and try and ruin
you. I think social media is just so potentially toxic and lethal for a DJ's
mental health. If you had the opportunity to present only the best aspects of your
existence yeah who wouldn't take that. I feel the negativity around that is
really starting to hit home for a lot of people, people doing things for the wrong
reason, for cosmetic reasons, for image reasons for ego reasons.
It's called social media but I don't believe it is I think people cultivate
this this false self this kind of synthetic persona and they can develop
it to the extent that they feel that that's what they want to be yet they
can't interact on the level.
Nothing concerns me about social media any way
you can make direct contact with your fans and followers is good in my book.
if someone says otherwise they're living in the past. We never had phones before in clubland
and now we do, so it had become a bit of a scourge because you know at the
beginning they were quite fun you know when I went to a U2 concert when Bono
says get your phones out and then putting the lights on and you see thousands of
people with the lights on and you turn all the lights off and there all you see were people
who had their phones in the air that was actually quite cool.
But now when you see
the lights on that's being recorded actually it's not that cool. Last year
the phones in the club really were invasive to me as a DJ. I found it
difficult to actually be able to focus on what I was doing just DJing, doing what
a DJ does. I kept getting interrupted time and time again physically by phones. So I'm on my phone all the time I've not
been without a phone for the last 10, 15 years and a big chunk of that time is
taken up by social media I am on it every hour of every day. So I wanna find out
what the implication would be if I come off social media like let's call it a
social media ban for a whole week to see if I could still be a DJ or
communicate with my friends and family and it not have an effect on my
professional career.
Yeah that's it no social media. If you're DJ-ing and you're
in front of say 4-500 people and your aware that somebody's taking a selfie
with you like this and it looks a little bit embarrassing you're kind of dealing
with this internal dialogue of I've kind of got of look good on the selfie but I've
kind of got to be nice to the person but I'm also kind of in front of 500 people
and the whole dialogue in your head can take you out of the music a little bit.
I'll get a lot of attention when I when I start to play so nobody wants to miss
that that beginning of what I create but the thing is once they captured that
that intro of whatever I do and then the phone should really just go go away and
should never see it again until they leave but if they'd still be recording
after 3 or 4 songs in and then we have a problem because no one's listening to
my first 3 or 4 records which is the most important records that you play.
I remember doing gigs and there's people right in front of me with a phone and I
felt it quite rude I felt that you know they're almost putting this buffer
between me and the audience or me and what I'm trying to portray.
I think in the
period from kind of 85 to 95 maybe even later the dancefloor is a dark sweaty
slightly mysterious slightly edgy place where no one would want a photo taken of
them let alone shown to their family to the media or their friends and that's
changed because now everyone needs to be Instagram friendly, everyone needs to look
great.
We were going through some old footage
from Pasha in Ibiza recently. People were jumping up and down people
were going wild and you know you can't do that if you're constantly checking on
your phone. It's mad how phones have affected the way that people even think
about events these days if you look at the rise of day parties the rise of pool
parties in Ibiza that's because people want to Instagram they want
everyone to see what a good time they're having so you know everywhere needs an
Instagrammable place or a place where you can you know take your selfie.
It's
almost like a party now is only good if if there's content to prove it happened
like the tree falling in the forest but no one was there to hear it did it
really happen you know. Were there really 5,000 people going mad if there's no
content. Now it used to be that the person on stage was the star now the person in
the audience is the star, you want to feel important and that's what it's
about you want to share with your friends you were there.
I feel that
everyone wants their own TV show you know everyone wants to be famous, to be
talked about or you know so and so went there or so and so's doing this. When the
people come to DC10 they want to call the other guys I don't know that
are in Rio de Janeiro with the phone they start the video call. Hey look where I am, fuck yeah. I'm here at DC10 – you're at home. I think social media's a massive part of
the dance music and for me as a DJ its the key tool for promoting myself.
For a producer it's like having a
multi-million dollar CRM right there for free you know allows incredible
connection and instant feedback from your customer so from that perspective
it's an amazing it's an amazing tool. I think 20 years ago it would be much
simpler to have a music career in a way. you go to a studio, you make your
record, you send it on a demo tape, to a record labe,l they sign it, if it becomes a
hit you tour and now it's kind of with there's been so much music out there you
can do that and it might just not become a hit even if the music's good. For
the majority of people you've got to have this presence and you've got to be
promoting your personality as well as your music. The best accounts to me are
where you mix the personal with the work so if I follow Black Coffee I don't
want to just know about his gigs I want to know about his personal life I like
seeing pictures of him with his mother having dinner that to me is a nice part
of social media is I get to feel the human part of an artist which you may
only know as an industry person.
It provides a direct DJ to consumer
relationship that didn't previously exist. We can speak to the people who are
in the club and find out exactly what tunes they like what tunes they didn't
like. You can engage directly from any part of the world at any time
fans can gain access to everything about an artist they can deep dive they can
explore the music they can explore who that person is they can find out what
they want. They're called social media for a reason they can have I think
positive impacts on our social relationships. Social media is a way for people to
speak directly to their fans where there were always intermediaries so therefore
you can keep them satiated, hope they spread the word and amplify your career.
Social media allows inspiration it allows education I think it can
fast-track learnings it can allow for the formation of support groups. I think
it can break down old paradigms. I would definitely definitely wouldn't have been playing
half the gigs I play I don't think i would have sold as many tracks. I wouldn't have
had as many listeners on the radio so yeah I think I'd be worse off without
social media.
My wife kind of took the marketing reins of our entire operation
she's the one that's flipped it into this data machine but it's brilliant.
There's so many things that we do geo-targeted posts around the world. I
remember when we was doing perfect strangers my second single we had
campaigns where it would be countdowns you know and you would create hype on social
platforms and that would help spread awareness and build followers and build
interest in what's coming next. A track can be more noticed if you give it to an
influencer you know that's another thing they've got millions of followers and
they're playing my music on all their Instagram or snapchat stories and
there's so many things but social media plays as much of a role as the music
does.
I know agents that are particularly
booking DJ's with more followers DJ A will get booked over DJ B and I also know
that DJ A had gone out and spent maybe 500 pounds on gaining those followers
because the perception that you're creating is you've got bigger fan base
than the other DJ and yesterday I was speaking to somebody that said they've
just bought like 2- 3,000 Instagram followers just so they can get a bigger
fee for their agent and that was a DJ actually. People can manipulate it in
another quite insidious way professionally as well you know it's
been seen for people to be buying YouTube views and buying Facebook Likes.
That to me is terrifying. People that they have like 100,000 and the realities
say they only have two comments, two likes I did not understand if this is real or
real that's the point why the social media are not good.
With the invention of the great ol
internet the beautiful thing was it enable everyone to have a go at this
game and release records and do that and put themselves out in the marketplace.
You're now in this era where people like Amelie Lens and Charlotte de Witte. These
are artists who've exploded I mean exploded through social media. Equally
the worst thing about the Internet is that exact thing you can make the
Sergeant Pepper's part 2 and unless you've got a good social marketing thing
no one's gonna hear it which is outrageous if you think about it.
There's
a lot of producers that have spent a long time learning their craft there's a lot
of artists there's a lot of DJ's that really have broken their backs for 20
years to get a level of skill and artistry that they have now and to see
someone match you on that because of your social media reach is a bitter pill
to swallow. We're never going to break new ground when new artists are
climaxing on dopamine released when you get a like or an interaction at such an
early stage in in their career the reality is most people need to start
honing a skill working at it have a bit of struggle find themselves as an
artist. I'm not sure that getting those constant little bumps of
dopamine is is helpful because it's sort of saying Yeah you've done it. Great. The challenge i'm gonna take is to go cold turkey
is try and live without social media for a whole week. One part of me is very
nervous because I'm so used to promoting myself and just catching up with friends
and seeing what everyone's up to on social media that I'm worried I'm going to
feel out the loop but I'm also excited to not have to remember to do it.
We all
need time off from social media we all need time off on the internet we all
need time off digitally I think it's really good to unplug I mean I'll do it
now and again myself but it scares people try unplugging the
phone you know I called you yesterday why didn't you call me back I text you a
minute ago I sent a WhatsApp Did you get my email? I'm just like no. I think it's good and bad you know there's there's
good things because you know by me being online and doing something I might
discover something I might discover an artist I might you know which might not
have happened if I was switched off.
If I was switched off it allows me to breathe
you know not be so conscious or worried about what everyone else is doing it
allows me to just do my own thing. I would advise that you want to check that
you are not psychologically dependent on something even if it brings you pleasure
and the way that you do that is by testing your reaction when that thing is
taken away from you. So there's been a recent scientific study where they had
people do a five-day digital detox and the big headline that came out in the
media was that your physiological stress levels go down what also happened is
that people's life satisfaction went down and their reported stress levels
didn't change so I think what we see from that is that a digital detox will
probably have a lot of different effects because technology is such a key part of
our lives.
I can imagine it would fill a lot of artists with with fear you know
now that comes back down to this this problem though of like how is an artist
value measured is it because they've got more Facebook Likes than the next guy or
more Instagram followers than the next guy? Seven days no social media, we're gonna delete all the apps, change all your passwords.
Go completely cold turkey. Are your ready? Yeah I think so it's just difficult
because it's like one of the biggest weeks of my summer. The first day is my
actual birthday so I think people are gonna think I'm very rude if they kind
of send me birthday messages. I've got a massive gig in London tonight alongside
not just like 2 DJ's, two of my heroes so Erick Morillo who's like the
inspiration behind me becoming a DJ and Mark Knight who's someone who I totally respect in the
industry so its quite a significant gig for me this summer that I'm not gonna be
able to document through social media which makes me quite sad and then I've
got massive gigs like festivals in Romania I've never played in Romania so
naturally I'd be like first time in Romania hopefully it'd be a good gig.
Not gonna be able to do that.
Maybe you'll actually enjoy it though, maybe you'll actually see things. Yeah and then Ibiza I always you know post that
when I'm in Ibiza because I love it there its like my second home so yeah I'm not
going to do all that and I'm just getting a bit nervous about doing it and coming
off but the time has come so well.
Seven days. Well if I can last that long. So that's it! Done.
Social media free, my phone is cleansed of social media.
I hope it makes me realize that I don't need to rely on social media as much as
I think. I know it's important I know it's key to what I do I know it's a
vital tool for promoting myself and everything that I work hard on but maybe
I've just slipped into the habit of just going on it a little bit too much and
maybe you know sitting for a whole film without going on it visiting a place
like Romania that I've never been to maybe just notice things a bit more like
talk about it with a person I'm with like rather than just you'know standing there I
don't know I don't know what I really don't know what's gonna happen I think
if I could predict it we just make it would just teach me to just chill out a
little bit with the phone.
Craving is a part of human being and
from the Buddhist perspective craving causes an attachment so attachment is the
cause of suffering attachment may be compared to the stone or heavy stone
and if you hold that just for a few minutes you can feel it that you can feel
tension so if you put it down you can it's like you let go. We can
compare the mobile phone to the stone if you use it too much it can cause an
attachment. Massively addicted to my phone. I can't switch off. First thing I do
when I wake up go on my phone the last thing I do before I go to sleep on my
phone.
It's like a comfort thing just quickly check my phone to check my
facebook Instagram the emails whatever it may be.
Every I wanna say four or five seconds you want to know what's going on
and that's an addiction so you're looking for that fix it some bit of
which you just do wherever you think that you do it or not. I do it okay and I'll
feel my phone okay okay I look at it, okay okay I got an email.
Nope. So what's actually
happening in your brain when you receive a notification on your phone you get
this little rush of endorphins which is a pleasure giving chemical and that
induces what's called a Pavlovian response that means that you want to
jump on your phone straight away and answer the notification. It's just so
easy cuz it's on your smart phone it's in your pocket if I'm walking to get the
train or sat at an airport or at home quickly have a little look right
straight on whether it's checking the news or Twitter or whatever straight on
my phone. And it's not until we talk about it now
that I've realized this.
Just arrived in Romania there came from
Paris had a couple of days there before Paris was Northern Ireland. I managed to
stay off social media despite visiting some incredible places you know the
tunes were going off the crowd was responding and that would have been a
perfect opportunity for me to get some videos. I definitely would have instagram storied. I
definitely would have tweeted I guess was a good opportunity to take it in and
not worry about I need to get this on my phone but I still did have those
thoughts.
The one thing I've found so far in this experiment is how addicted to my
phone I am. I think because my brain is so used to
just getting my phone out so and if I saw something I was like my first train of
thought would be I need to get my phone out. Oh no I cant. It's quite
scary actually to to think that my phone is almost become a part of my body
like if I'm separate from it I panic. The people who designed their social
media platforms use the same algorithms and technology as gambling sites they're
using a lot of the same techniques so you get a rush of endorphins when for
example your followers go up or when your posts are liked it's actually
addictive. We have to remember that most social media platforms their business
model is based on keeping us on those platforms for as long as possible
whether that said that we see more advertising or interact with more
commercial partners or make more in-app purchases whatever it is that you know
forms the core of their business it can lead to them prioritizing the posts in
our feeds that they think we are more likely to react to and that can perhaps
lead to what we call filter bubbles which is where you only see the
viewpoints of people who agree with you because you end up curating your feed or
being pushed information that that these sites think corresponds to your own
worldview and that can be problematic because it can give you a bit of a
skewed view of of reality.
There's a reason why all the fake news sites get
so much traction because they identify what people would mostly be angry about
and when people are angry they're their emotions worked up and they may start to
comment. So if person A is saying something negative to person B you'll
get some people off that person B's timeline that see it and they want to come to
their defense and then other people will latch on to those people and call them
kind of social justice warriors and like so you get this kind of feedback loop
and then that's how it exponentially grows.
The many people were on social media want
to have a lot of attention from the people when you say something when you
put something on Facebook and then you wait for the feedback when you wait for
the comments or even the likes. If we want something different from ourselves we
want attraction from other people and then whenever you have more likes and then
you want more and more. The more you have have, the more you want. I think people become
addicted to all those likes and all those shares etc you know it's an
endorphin rush isn't it's the release of something when you're being like you're
being validated externally you continually having to re get that
validation.
I think a great amount of posting on social media is bragging. It's
definitely a pressure to look good on social media for example I'm probably
not gonna post a picture of me like that in front of a crowd of two people
because it doesn't really sell me as a DJ when promoters look at my social
media and fans as well I want them to see me in the best light. So you will
post a picture of you sat on the steps of the private jet. Been there done that!
I've done it. Or you will post a picture of you with an amazing crowd or with her
hands in the air looking like they're having the time of their life but you
won't post a picture of you sat in the car pale and exhausted staring out the
window missing your kids when you're still four and a half hours from home.
There are some artists who are using social media in a really really amazing
way where they they are being so open and positive about what they're doing
you know it's almost this have unwritten rule that you have to say that every gig
was amazing but there are some artists who are calling it out when it's not and
I think they're really seeing a huge growth in their followers because people
really respect the honesty.
I think what a DJ is very important how to use the
social media I like you know the people that use the social media in a funny way
like Seth Troxler where Seth Troxler is very funny because you know maybe make a
picture when it's going to the bathroom you know but when the picture go serious
you start to make like a special picture like use Photoshop or I think they
lost the the most important thing of the social that is not making communication with
the music.
You know it's called social media but I don't believe it is. I think
people cultivate this this false self this kind of synthetic persona and they
can develop it to the extent that they feel that that's what they want to be
yet they can't interact on the level they can't interact with another human
being because they've become so distant to this persona they've created this new
almost narcissistic part with all this validation and external commendation and
it just causes so many different split unintegrated parts in people.
And I see
that you know even working in the NHS with younger people all the time
they're continually beating themselves up because they don't look like this
synthetic image they've got I mean it's really a real big struggle. When you
think back to the mix compilation in the mid nineties it was all about a girl
in her underwear on the cover of the CD that's what sold Ministry of Sound Ibiza.
Just as we were kind of getting rid of that very poor marketing technique now
we've got social media accentuating the female DJ in the bra or underwear to
even greater heights and I think it's very hard because there are a lot very
beautiful women who are all about music and all about their artistic work and
they're also being given a hard time because whatever they do comes across
like they're pushing their image when actually they're just being themselves. There's definitely issues around things
like body image or you know this idea of FOMO fear of missing out when you think
all your friends are having a better time than you.
In a lot of social
psychological theories comparison to others is just key to how we function
and social media does amplify this ability to compare yourselves both to
people in your social surroundings the people you would have never met or you
will never meet but you meet every day on your Instagram feed so social
comparison can cause me to feel really motivated to try and to be better and to
improve myself but then actually there can also be a negative effect of social
comparison causing people to feel disillusioned to lack in self esteem. There is
a very powerful quote for me that says comparison is the thief of joy and if
your tribe is no longer 12 families that it's half the planet that can strip a
lot of joy from your day-to-day life There's a part of the brain at this in
the frontal cortex and it's responsible for your understanding of how you fit
within your community how you compare to your friends and your family and what
your role is in in your kind of social group and for prolific social media
users that part of the brain is larger than in their peers and what they think
that means is that they would be obsessively concerned with comparing
themselves to other people and we know that that has a negative impact on
self-worth.
The other aspect is this kind of constant like competition that has
been created in the DJ world this kind of we're all one community but we all
want to kill each other at the end of the day and I see that too much with a
lot of talent that they're so preoccupied with what somebody else is
doing and what they're seeing on social media and you know why are they playing
that stage looks much bigger than the one I've played on but I just see people
are just showing off so much and then getting so concerned and paranoid about
what other people are doing they're losing sight of actually what's important to
them in their life and their career and focusing on their situation.
I see all the managers posting about how well
certain acts are doing and even if one of my acts have done well and I've definitely
gotten into this thing about you know why are we not doing that how do
we get to do that or whatever and I found myself getting quite quite pathetically
jealous about that. You can see why certain acts at different points of their
career that could affect them for sure because it they might think why am I not doing
that what you know I should be there and of course it never stops in dance music.
It's an addiction it really is you know you feel in your body like the kind of
fear of missing out I feel if I'm switched off of you know a few hours – I'll
miss stuff.
Coming off social media made me definitely
realize that I need to allocate my time more efficiently. Visiting the places I
visited this week and experiencing the things I've experienced, seeing the things I've seen
it's like hold on a minute your life can be much more efficient if you don't
waste time every hour scrolling and scrolling. I was aware that I used it a
lot but I wasn't aware on how much I reached for my phone and it's quite
scary because even though I didn't have the apps for social media on my phone
during the whole experiment I'll still reaching for it like it was just a habit.
I think the issue is not that we shouldn't be using social media or
engaging with our phones and making the most of the platforms and the great
technology I think the issue is more of self awareness and being aware how often
we are distracted from our day-to-day communications by the smartphone.
One of
the things that's coming out of the really new research into social media is
that if you're a passive user if you're scrolling through other people's posts
and then thinking Ah they they all look like they're having a really good
time and I'm you know sat on my sofa with my hand in a bucket of Maltesers
what am I doing with my life then it's going to start negatively impacting your
your self-esteem.
I think social media is just so potentially toxic and lethal for
a DJ's mental health. It can be so destructive and people can be just be so
negative there's so much jealousy out there to artists succeeding and I think
that's partly that's partly an electronic music problem that's always
been there. No one is safe from mental health issues because society isn't safe
from mental health issues but if you add on top of that the social media lens
that amplifies everything that you do or you perceive it to amplify everything
you do and you think everybody can see everything you're doing wrong then it's
going to have a very negative effect. At the time I was using social media as
a sort of to define my own feelings so in a way that when I played a gig and
I got back to the hotel and I was severely unhappy I would go on social
media and search out negative reviews to kind of try and justify my feeling
because I didn't understand it at the time.
And that was before I took the time
off. I remember a few gigs have been quite struggle for him and before seeing
Ben I thought Oh God we can't just pull six months worth of gigs like are you sure
you need to do this let's at least talk about it. When I actually went round to see him
but that's when I sort of realized yeah okay yeah. Let's just pull
this right now. Now I'm much more aware of looking back at how it might have
affected me much in the way of the imposter sort of side of things feeling
like a fraud everyone else is doing better than me and looking at people's
schedules and what they're doing in life and everything. I wasn't using it in the
most positive way. We couldn't have just cancelled those gigs without announcing
it somewhere at least telling people some reason why. So Ben wrote this thing
on Facebook which was I don't think any of us, Or certainly me didn't
think it would hit as many people as it did and I think it did I think it hit
like 1.5 million people so nearly two million people now very quickly and the
feedback it was incredible actually from outside looking in the support
that he had but from all corners of the globe.
I think in the last two weeks alone James Blake wrote about his depression
and mental health and suicidal thoughts a lot of artists are you know using
social media in a very positive way to tell their fans that it's okay to suffer
that we're all human we all suffer from issues of anxiety and depression.
I think
looking at social media and and the recent spate of kind of high-profile
suicides in the music industry especially like that with Avicii is that we don't
know we might feel that we know our artists and the whole opening up of
social media was supposed to be about hey we get to see it we know our artists
innately but we don't we never know. I see a lot online you know just reach out
just just just talk just this kind of stuff and some people just can't and I
think when you've got a high profile I think the pressure is even more on
because you're you're trying to sustain a a commercial venture you may have
created some kind of a false self that you feel you can't back down from. I think people are far more likely to sort
of start hammering hammering the keyboards about why something's shit than
saying this is wonderful well done.
If you have your notifications on from everyone
you can just be walking down the street and get notification on your phone
saying hey you're an ass this it's not really what you want if you're having a
bad day. There's this strange bit of psychology that's been proven and I
don't know why it happens but when you are being cyber bullied you spend more
time online and by all rights you should take a step back but you don't because
you know people are talking about you and you – there's this weird
compulsion to see what they're saying. I think a troll's someone that's seeking
gratification through putting someone down on the internet there's there's
research that shows that people get dopamine from it a lot of the time
they're hiding behind it an avatar or or a fake name fake account so it's not
real but they are incredibly destructive and can be especially when it's targeted
and it's personal. I'm kind of fortunate enough to have to be strong enough
mentally to about to handle whatever comes to me but if i was really really
sensitive I probably would be in a mental institution by now
because the things that have been said about me it's been unbelievable and very
damning and very personal for no reason whatsoever apart from that they want to
create a thread based on trolling as we know and cyberbullying.
Most people with
a degree of success have a degree of impostor syndrome and thinking they're
going to be found out any minute for being the fraud or for having a lack of
talent and of course what trolling will effectively do is is play onto that
because if you're constantly being harassed for having ghost productions or
not being a good DJ or that tracks not very good or your clothes aren't very
good or who did your hair all of that compounds into this self perception that
you've probably had anyway which is someone's going to find me out
soon and I think what's a shame is that if you did a poll of most of the people
on the attack all of them have those same fragilities and those same concerns
but forget that people in the public eye have them too.
As soon as you get in the
public eye people will throw anything they want at you and you have to be able
to take it and if you can't take it and if it is going to be affecting your
mental health then you just need to get off it get off it
you'll probably be very liberated. I think predominantly since probably I
guess the inception of iPhones and I just notice a massive difference in
the classic people holding our phones and they want to try and preserve that
experience digitally rather than just embrace it from the perspective of
just been organically there and been engaged with it.
When you're walking around you
you you start looking for opportunities for content you see a beautiful sunset
or yeah you know a dog doing something funny and rather than just appreciating
that, your brain goes that's content. Being at the clubs for a moment itself is all
about being awashed by the music feeling the atmosphere meeting other
people who feel the same as you do about the tracks are being played. As soon as
you pull your phone out you lose all of it. You lose the essence of the
reason why you're there. 10 years ago 20 years ago you go to a club to connect
with people to look at them in the eye exchanged ideas kisses
whatever you want to exchange on a dance floor with people in the club. It was to
experience music together, that feeling of a lot of humans together in one place
feeling one thing.
As unique human beings we all get that sense of worth of
connection from other human beings now I think whats starting to happen now is
people are spending less and less time with other humans so they're losing that
natural sense of empathy. I think there's definitely a danger that we're losing
human connectivity as a result of living through our screens when you used to go
to a club it was about the music but it was about meeting people and now it's
about the music and taking photos of that music and posting it in real time
and not about people around you and I think we're all I think we're all
missing some of the magic at the moment because of it. We're working with PACHA,
Amnesia, DC-10 and we're doing some stuff with Privilege as well so pretty well
everywhere of making a point of saying no cameras. From a promoters perspective
for us and the brand growth of the brand it's a fuckin ballsy thing to do but we
see for us we say it right I want to go to an event where I get completely lost
and I'd go across the road afterwards and have a drink and say fuckin-hell wasn't
that amazing! This happened, that happened but it's because its in here it's not
going through scrolling through saying I've got to refer to my phone to make sure it actually happens.
There's some really interesting research done by Dr.
Aaron Balick he wrote a book called the psychodynamics of social networking and
in it he says that if you endless photos you begin to rely on
those to connect with your experiences if you go to a gig and you're looking at
it through your phone there's a part of your brain that goes I don't need to
really be here because you're banking this for later and what that means is that
you're not fully immersed in the moment. There's some things that you can't
capture, you feel it, You let it flow through you and you let it go.
If you're
gonna be on a dance floor. Be on the dance floor. I mean there's got to be a
level of education for the younger audience who have just started clubbing and
that's what we're trying to push people who enter clubs into the first time they
might be a little bit excited they might take out their phone and film
the DJ so you just got to educate the younger audience.
We're trying to try to
get people to understand that you should be able to unplugged yourself for
something that takes you away from the reality of life. If happiness can be
defined as the ability to fully experience life then reaching for your
phone in an attempt to record that and promote that is only gonna take us out
of that very state. My biggest concern is that we will become almost like avatars
so we'll become less and less active in the three-dimensional world and rely on
our social media personas to kind of live our lives for us and that that will
get to our deathbeds and look back and really regret that. I think people
definitely aren't living in the moment in life in society you know if you walk
to any Beach you walk to any Park you walk to any football match you go to a
school play you'll see the parents recording the school play rather than
watching their kids on the school play so I think we just have to accept that
phones and the recording of what's around you is embedded in culture we can
dislike it but I think it's going to be very hard to
change where we are right now.
I really hope we get to that point where you know
it's positive to switch off it's in you know these clubs will embrace it more
not think about the social media value for them but actually think about the
experience in the room and get people focused back on the music and the people
around them. There is a backlash against the kind of social media culture and
there are clubs and bars where you're not allowed them where they have signs
out there saying like no we don't have Wi-Fi talk to each other things like
that where you know blocks your signal when you go in you can find spaces where
people are actually committed to three-dimensional interaction. It'll be
like the smoking area of the restaurant. Half the restaurant will be using their
phones to talk to each other over the table and eventually they'll get pushed
outside and they'll just be standing in the rain doing it.
And I think more and
more clubs will pick up on that idea of a no phone protocol like Berghain, like
Output in New York which I've played and really appreciated for that. And I
think it will definitely become more of a thing and I hope it does and I think
if it does it will really help to preserve what clubbing is for..