Why does everyone hold their phone vertically at concerts?

I was shooting photos at the Starland Ballroom show last Friday and literally half the crowd had their phones sideways (you know, portrait mode) filming the whole set. It drives me crazy because those vertical videos look terrible on a regular screen and they never get the whole stage. Is there some trick to getting people to rotate their phones that I haven't found yet?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_alice15d ago

It's the same thing with people taking screenshots of conversations instead of just saving the text. Everyone got so used to scrolling on their phones that they forgot how to frame a shot for an actual screen. I blame social media stories being vertical and people just defaulting to that without thinking about the bigger picture. You see the same thing at fireworks shows where everyone is recording their own tiny slice of the sky instead of just watching the actual event. People just don't consider the audience they're making the content for anymore.

reese_nelson15d ago

Right? Saw a guy filming a whole concert on his phone... just watched his screen the whole time.