On June 5, Phoebe Bridgers announced The Lost Tour 2026 with an Instagram post captioned “I’m going on tour no phones.” From September through November, she’s bringing a phone-free experience to arenas around the US.

She had spent the past month doing pop-up shows at small venues around the US playing songs from her not-yet-released album, also with no phones. Somehow, this felt normal and fun (“of course she doesn’t want her unreleased songs leaking”), while a full arena tour with no phones felt shocking.

I’m not proud to admit that my first reaction was “hmm could I go without my phone at a concert?”

Most Phoebe Bridgers fans had no issue with the no phones rule and were excited about it. But there were some who had concerns:

What if there’s an emergency and I need to text/call someone? How will I have anything to remember the concert by? (Cameras are also prohibited) And it’s easy to ask these questions and tell ourselves we genuinely just care about our safety or want to have a few clips of our favorite song. 

But I think those concerns are excuses for what we don’t want to admit: we know we’re too dependent on our phones. We know we should be able to attend a 4 hour concert without screens, and we don’t want to admit that we aren’t sure we can.

When I think deeper about why I was making those same excuses, it’s not because I was planning to be on my phone the whole time. I’ve been to plenty of concerts where the only time I’ve touched my phone truly is to take a picture or video.

It’s because my phone is a coping mechanism for those in-between moments where we’re not doing anything. In line for the bathroom? We mindlessly scroll on our phones. Sitting in our seats between openers? Probably looking at Instagram or playing Block Blast.

We aren’t able to be bored anymore. We constantly turn to our phones to keep us occupied and to ignore what we might be feeling. Waiting in line by yourself is awkward, so we pull out our phones to push away the uncomfortable feeling.

We shouldn’t need the constant stimulation of our phones. We should be able to sit in an arena and have the environment around us, the anticipation, be enough for us.

My sister went to Phoebe Bridgers’ DC show and had the time of her life. She absolutely loved the concert, and got to spend a fun night with her roommate.

People on social media have said it was nice to have a night without their phone. The Lost Tour is full of people living in the moment.

How many times have you had to choose between singing along to a song during a concert or taking a video of it? Of course, you can’t do both for fear of your voice ruining the video. Or, how many times have you stood relatively still to film a good video or take a good photo as opposed to dancing along with the crowd?

These are problems Phoebe Bridgers fans don’t have to worry about at the Lost Tour: the decision to be in the moment was made for them when they bought their tickets.

The way this concert has brought people together shows what could be possible if we were more intentional with our screen time. Because nobody can take photos or videos, people are drawing what they remember the concert being like. 

I think this is much more beautiful and fun than having 20 pictures and 50 videos taken on your iPhone. I’ve never been in awe at a concert photo on someone’s Instagram story, but I have been in awe seeing people draw their concert memories.

For the past year, I’ve been using an app called Foqos and an NFC tag I bought for $5 to lock all the social media apps and games on my phone from midnight until noon. I was sick of wasting mornings scrolling through social media for basically no reason. 

Now, I wake up and read my book. Or just lay around until I feel like getting up. I still have a ways to go until I’m not at all dependent on my phone, but this first step has helped so much.

We should all be re-learning how to be bored. When we don’t have constant stimulation from our phones, we think more. We’re more reflective, more creative, more human.