Get off your phone and dance.
- By: Amanda Coscarelli
This story has been submitted by a LOOP reader…
Clubbing has always been about connection. The way I see it, there are three main reasons we go out to the club: To connect with the music, to connect with the energy of everyone around us, and to reconnect with our friends, soaking in the present moment. But phones kill connection. They take us out of the moment, they separate us and they’re just plain rude.
If you’ve been to a live show in the past 10 years, you know what I mean. When an artist looks into the crowd to connect with their fans, they’re met with a sea of phones instead of faces. Or even worse… a fan is trying to see the artist with their own eyes, but they can’t, because their view is obstructed by a million screens. If I wanted to see my favorite artist through a screen, I would’ve saved a few hundred dollars and gone on YouTube.
I’m not the only one who’s fed up. The phone-free movement has been around ever since your dad was asking you not to text at the dinner table. But recently, phone-free clubs have started their own revolution, offering a taste of the good old days before everyone felt the need to share their entire night with the internet. These clubs, popping up in the biggest cities for nightlife around the world, prohibit filming, or the use of phones on the dance floor altogether and encourage genuine connection. “But what if I want that girl’s number?” you might ask… You’re gonna have to dust off the old memory, or keep a pen close by for desperate times.
If I wanted to see my favorite artist through a screen, I would’ve saved a few hundred dollars and gone on YouTube.
Some people might see this 2020s prohibition as harsh, but I see it as a beacon of hope for nightlife, which has been on the decline for years.
Something magical happens when people are forced to break the invisible social barrier created by phones and connect with each other without a crutch. Once the nerves wear off, people begin to talk to each other, make new friends and actually dance. The energy is just different.
And it’s not just nostalgia talking — it’s science. When you’re not worried about capturing the perfect clip for your story, your brain stops splitting its attention. You hear the bass more deeply, you notice the way the lights sweep across the room, and you feel the collective pulse of a crowd moving as one organism. That presence is the whole point of nightlife. It’s why DJs spend hours crafting sets with emotional arcs, why clubs invest in sound systems that make your chest vibrate, why we bother getting dressed up just to sweat with strangers in a dark room. None of that lands when half the crowd is hunched over their phones.
Something magical happens when people are forced to break the invisible social barrier created by phones and connect with each other without a crutch.
Phone-free spaces remind us that nightlife isn’t a content factory — it’s a community. And communities feel best when everyone is fully there. The irony is that the moments we most want to document are the exact ones we ruin by trying to capture them. The best nights of your life aren’t the ones you post; they’re the ones you remember because you lived them.
So the next time you step into a club, do yourself a favor: pocket your phone, lift your head, and let the music take over. The night will thank you.
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