As you walk into a bar/club, you are bathed into its lighting. Halogen lights, spotlights, fluorescent lights, laser lights, neon lights and sometimes black lights. It used to be that you could see another type of lighting around. Lighters. You’d look around and everywhere little lights would spark, followed by a short mist of smoke. Then the ban happened and you can’t see those anymore. Well, you may catch them and rarely. Of course, you can still see those lights out on patios and at concerts.

Now with the way technology has advanced over the past decade, a new type of lighting has added all nightclub lighting. I am talking about cell phones of course. Every once in a while, just stop and look around and count how many people are checking their phones in the club. It’s like watching a field of glowing fireflies. All you see are their lit face and very quick moving thumbs.

They just can’t help it. I have to admit that checking your phone is a much better look when you’re alone at the bar than standing there, hands in your pocket and staring at people. You want to look busy. Whether you have a drink or a cigarette in your hand, you don’t want to look bored and/or creepy. So what do you do? You pull out your phone. It’s easy and does the trick. People can assume that you’re just texting a friend you’re supposed to meet up with. Little do they know, you’re just checking your Twitter feed, checking in on FourSquare, updating your Facebook status, or just playing Words With Friends. Therefore, you are bored. Why’s that? There are people around you. You could talk to someone. Someone might want to talk to you. You could go dance. You could just enjoy your Vodka and Red Bull. But no. You light up your face and isolate yourself from the crowd.

Moreover, you can still be with a group of people sitting at a table, at some point, everybody will pull out their phone and change the lighting mood of your surroundings with it. And if you’re not taking pictures with it in order to capture every Kodak moment (which will be the topic of my next post), you want to be connected at all times. Maybe someone tweeted about a better place to check out. Maybe you want to find out if the dude/chick you have a crush on just checked in the same bar. Any moment of solitude you can get because your friends went to the bar or because the music is too loud to talk over, you get on it. It’s as if your hands had Tourette syndrome. I’ve hung out with people who just could not put their phone down for more than 2 minutes. But then again, sometimes, I don’t blame them. There’s nothing else around that could hold their attention long enough to distract from the fact that they haven’t tweeted all this time.

All in all, You could argue that going out is a social experience, yet cell phones have allowed us to be alone in a crowd…until the end of the night. That’s the social and human aspect starts again. Bars are closed. People are out on the sidewalks. Alcohol may have taken its toll on them. All are bathing in the same light: street light. And your cell phone can’t anything about the mood. There’s only a handfull of moods: horny, drunk, hungry, and/or tired. So what do you do? You pull it again but this time you’re actually trying to talk to people. Get someone’s phone number. Make a booty call. Find out where the after-party is. Call a cab. Call your friend who bailed out on you earlier and try to meet up somewhere because he/she drove. Coordinate with your friends over the phone to go have a late snack.

We choose to partake in the social experience that is nightlife and yet we do not want to be alone in the dark. So we turn on our cell phone. It’s like our personal night light. Have a good night![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]