The other night, YouTube’s all-knowing algorithm surfaced a video of Blink-182 performing at Coachella a couple of weekends ago. While I was thoroughly entertained, I also felt utterly old — not only because of how long it’s been since I first remember jamming out to the rock band as a ~9 year old watching TRL, but because of the sight of the Coachella audience’s reaction to seeing such an awesome performance — uniformly still, with both hands holding their phones above their heads. Sitting in my apartment, I was rocking out. But there, in person at a live concert — no one seemed to be jamming out to the music!
This really bummed me out. And simultaneously made me realize that I’m already at an age feeling like an old man yelling at the clouds about “how things used to be!”
I remember (here we go) being a teenager attending concerts and getting absolutely lost in them. Dancing, singing along, and not caring about anything but that moment.
I’m also completely cognizant that every generation typically looks down on generations below them for doing things differently. This historically manifests in generational strife — and I’m actively aware that there’s no inherently right way for how anything in society should exist — “How it…
