I have done a fair share of clubbing in my time. I knew I had enjoyed a good night out when I woke up with the stench of cigarette smoke still clinging to my hair, the tinny ringing of damaged ear drums reverberating through my skull, the ache in my knees from too much dancing and, on one particularly memorable occasion, my Doctor Martens boots still on and laced up.
Those days brought with them an extensive network of "party friends"; people with whom it was acceptable to enjoy a good night out, but whom you wouldn`t really take home to introduce to your parents. For the most part, you wouldn`t make plans to see them, but would enjoy bumping into them weekend after weekend at the dingiest nightclubs Johannesburg had to offer.
Then the advent of the rave was upon us. Parties were thrown in warehouses that were capable of holding 20 000 people. Every one of those 20 000 was your friend. Keeping track of this vast network of acquaintances was nightmarish, especially considering the fact that the events were held at different venues each time, so you couldn`t plan to meet outside a particular bathroom that you all knew well.
We resorted to elaborate plans based on generic architectural layouts. "We`ll meet up every hour on the hour at the first bar we find after coming in the main entrance," were the kind of plans we would make with friends. "If there is no obvious first bar, make it the first bar in the first area to your immediate right after the main entrance," would be a likely addendum to ensure we all found each other. More and more elaborately detailed directions evolved, until someone came up with the brilliant idea of balloons.
One of our number would purchase a helium-filled foil balloon with a particularly recognisable cartoon character printed on it. She would then be responsible for informing all of our other friends what to look out for on the main dance floor, where we could all be located, dancing under our own personal cartoon emblem. It all made perfect sense.
SMS technology would have saved us a lot of trouble.
Georgina Guedes, Editor, ITWeb Brainstorm
This was in the days before we all carried cellphones, of course. SMS technology would have saved us a lot of trouble. But those kids who got to party with SMS are probably saying the same thing about the GPRS services that are on offer now. One such service being developed is the ability to tell your cellphone to look for a prescribed list of contacts in a given area. If any of your contacts are around - whether you`re in a nightclub, shopping centre or open field - your cellphone will let you know.
This is a development of the concept that allows you to broadcast a list of personal attributes to any people within a certain radius, and if your phone locates someone who is likewise interested in "rugby, hiking and sushi" it will let you know and you can meet up. At some point the need for conversation will be obviated altogether.
All this conjures up some pretty interesting concepts of how people will interact within the next 10 years, but my favourite image of future nightclubbing persists. A while ago, an electronic DJ system was invented that could spin records and mix songs so well that it was indiscernible from a human DJ. At one of the venues where this system was sampled, all the clubbers were given headsets so they could hear the music. While everyone in the room was dancing to the same beat that they could hear perfectly, to a technically deficient outsider the room would appear to be full of people dancing in time in dead silence.
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