The Last Year Nobody Had Their Phone Out at a Concert
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
The Last Year Nobody Had Their Phone Out at a Concert
-
Narrated by:
-
By:
2011 was the last normal year. That's not nostalgia. That's what historians who study decades for a living actually call it. Go find concert footage from that year. Everyone is holding up a drink or a lighter. Nobody has a phone out. It looks like a different planet.
By 2012 the majority of the world's population was addicted to smartphones and scrolling. Spotify launched in 2011 and finished off physical media for good. Charlie Sheen had a public meltdown, got fired, said I am on a drug called Charlie Sheen and took the whole thing on tour. Ed Conroy went. He still isn't sure it was real. Divorce rates went down when smartphones arrived, which nobody predicted and nobody has fully explained. Younger people are now hooking up CD players and saying it sounds different. It does. It has soul.
Fifteen years ago people were just figuring out how to turn an iPhone on. Now they're touching glass in the dark at 3 in the morning. That happened fast. Nobody voted on it.
Topics: 2011 last normal year, smartphone addiction, Spotify, Charlie Sheen meltdown, physical media
GUEST: Ed Conroy | http://retrontario.com | @retrontario
Originally aired on 2026-04-09