I don’t mind people taking a picture or a bit of video at a concert. Wanting something to remember is natural. A photograph can hold the look of the stage, the people you were with, or the moment the first note landed.
The balance changes when recording the concert starts to compete with being at the concert. Holding a phone up through song after song may produce a more complete record, but it also gives you another job to do while the music is happening.
The length matters because the task changes. With a photograph, you can choose a moment, make the image and return your eyes to the stage. Recording several songs requires ongoing decisions about when to start, where to point, whether to zoom and when to stop. Each check may be brief, but the phone keeps inviting you back into managing it. The live event keeps unfolding during every check.
A photograph is not automatically a distraction
The research is more nuanced than the familiar instruction to put the phone away and live in the moment.
In a 2016 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Kristin Diehl, Gal Zauberman and Alixandra Barasch reported three field experiments and six lab experiments on photo-taking. They found that taking photos often increased people’s enjoyment of positive experiences when it increased their engagement. That effect was less likely when the experience was already highly engaging, or when taking the photo interfered with the experience.
That does not prove that phones improve concerts. The experiments studied several kinds of experiences, and a quick photograph is not the same behaviour as filming most of a live performance. The useful point is narrower: capturing a moment can sometimes help us notice it. The trouble begins when the work of capturing gets in the way.
Recording gives attention a second assignment
A live performance keeps moving whether you are fully there for it or not. If you are filming, part of your attention goes to the frame, the screen, the battery, the people in front of you and whether the video will be worth keeping. None of those choices is enormous on its own. Together, they can turn a person from audience member into camera operator.
There may be good reasons to record a particular moment, whether it is a favourite song, a brief clip for someone who could not be there or a piece of the night you want to revisit. The distinction I care about is the point at which preserving the experience begins to replace it.
A recording cannot keep the whole thing
The video will save the sound and the image, imperfectly. It will not quite save the physical force of the music, the response of the crowd or the feeling of sharing one unrepeatable moment with a room full of people.
That is part of what makes live music live. It asks for attention now. The moment cannot be paused and resumed when we have finished managing the record of it.
This is not an argument for a blanket phone ban. People use phones differently, and venues have their own reasons for whatever rules they set. It is simply worth noticing the trade.
Keep the memory without giving away the night
The answer does not need to be severe. Take the photo. Capture a little video. Then maybe put the phone down.
The recording can help you remember where you were. Your attention is what lets you feel that you were there.
Paul Larche is the author of The Divided Brain (CanReads 2026 Business/Marketing Winner | BookLife Prize 2025 Semifinalist, 10/10 Score, Editor’s Pick).