Concerts, cell phones and questions of etiquette

Two years ago I had one of those "When did I get old?" moments when a friend took me to see a Dave Matthews concert. It wasn't the masses of college kids wandering around in flip-flops that made me feel old, it was the realization that nobody raised lighters anymore when their favorite slow song was played. Instead, they all raised open cell phones and we gloried in their glow. I guess that makes sense in an era when fewer people smoke and everybody is wireless.

But what didn’t make sense to me was that so many people were taking photos with their phones. What happened to the times when photography was verboten and cameras were strictly prohibited?

I confess, I've been slow keeping up with the wireless generation. I've had a cell phone for more than a decade, but the phones I had were just “telephones,” not the “communications hubs” they are today. My latest, which lasted six years, was an archaic device that my nephew called “cute” because it was so “simple” and easy to use.

For Christmas, Dave bought me a new phone with a camera and web access. I had arrived.

So, last month, when I went with Dave and some friends to see John Mayer, I didn’t need to feel disconnected. Sure, I lifted an eyebrow at the girls wearing flip-flops in freezing and snowy weather, but I could raise my cell phone with the best of them during the slow songs.

And better yet, I could entertain myself with my camera phone and solve that long-standing question about photography during the concert. Apparently, no one cares about all these people snapping photos with their camera phones because the quality is crap.

See for yourself. Of the 10 photos I took, these are the best. I wonder what will happen in another few years when the technology improves?