Suddenly Everyone Is Scared to Dance at Concerts and Clubs | Hacker News Reader

Suddenly Everyone Is Scared to Dance at Concerts and Clubs

wsj.com

25 pointsOGEnthusiast20 comments

We can dance if we want to.

We can leave your friends behind.

Because your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance,

well, they're no friends of mine.

My family is a family of dancers. My parents love it. My older sister danced and even taught dancing. So I was always under intense observation when it comes to that. And every hint of it was immediately commented on. Every movement to music, too. I hated it. And completely blocked all of dancing from my life. Didn't dance on graduation, not on weddings. That's just a direct and human consequence.

Alternate link:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/suddenly-everyo...

Not in Berlin where the culture very strongly discourages filming on the dance floor. Most clubs will kick you out if you take photos. I went one time to an event in the UK and most of the front row was people trying to get the best picture, sometimes with flash. I couldn’t dance because all these people were taking space looking at their phones. It ruined the whole experience.

Can't read but it's not sudden for me. I don't dance. I feel separate from most of humanity on this issue.

Can't find a non-paywalled link at the moment but the gist is it's because of phones and the fear of going viral on social media. Some concerts and clubs are now starting to institute phone bans at the door to create a more friendly atmosphere.

Re: no paywalled link

Good. I was tired of us acting like we could ignore the blatant act of information being prevented from its freedom by being some caste of monks who knew about the magic words to use the internet archive to avoid it.

I think the chilling effect of phones is already stark in this way and we haven't hit peak bodycam-style always-on wearables every generation of tech leaders tries. When glassholes are actually here to stay this will be even worse (or maybe it will be so inevitable people won't care anymore?).

> fear of going viral on social media

This seems a bit odd, you'd have to be dancing like a total loon before you got any viral traction. The vast majority of people already dance just by slightly moving their arms whilst gently shifting their weight from one foot to the other. Surely such people don't think anyone would watch videos of their rather lame perambulations?

Whereas the people who do dance like total loons would only welcome internet fame.

Berlin has banned mobile phones from clubs for pretty much ever, but only to prevent pics of people off their tits causing them trouble at work.

It’s new year, let yourself have a dance somewhere private where you can’t be judged. You might change your mind

In the olden days alcohol was a prerequisite to get (most) people dancing. Nowadays drinking has declined substantially, especially amongst the younger crowd who are most likely to frequent concerts and clubs.

Does the article factor that in? It won't load for me, unfortunately.

The article does not mention alcohol.

Or maybe everyone feeling like they are being watched all the time (while simultaneously staring at their phones) is part of why people are drinking less? It’s a vicious cycle.

and potentially recorded?

The hypothesis in the article is it's smartphones and people afraid of their dancing going viral on social media.

But it's interesting that you brought up declining drinking rates. I'm sure that's just as large a factor as well.

I think drinking is declining for the same reason as dancing... any situation involving relaxing in a social way has gone from "what do the people around me think of me?" to "how could someone make what I'm doing look stupid to get upvotes/likes on social media?"

edit: It deserves mentioning the level of drinking involved in socializing was never a good thing and I think everyone is more aware of the dangers now.

Hmmm wonder if it's due to sudden influx of ketamine on the dance floor ... warning for those who don't know, ketamine is also linked with bladder wall destruction.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/30/surge-in-ket...

I can't read the article, but the dude in the video is in a brightly lit room with cameras pointing at him. When I went clubbing it was so dark you couldn't even really see anyone. You could be anonymous if you wanted to be. It was always about letting people who aren't performers let go and feel the music.

I wonder if some places might benefit from asking patrons to stow their cameras away in lockers, some museums do that so it’s not out of the norm.

This feels like a complete BS story. Been to a bunch of festivals and concerts in the last few years and while cell phones have kind of ruined it, its because people are so caught up in filming terrible video clips of the stage they'll never watch instead of being present in the moment.

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