Scott Ian decries text obsession

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian says the world’s obsession with texting is a problem for all humanity and not just the music business.

Currently on the road with Iron Maiden in South America in support of the recently released 11th album For All Kings, the guitarist discussed his issues with technology in an interview with Argentina radio station Vorterix.

Ian says: “If you go to any public place anywhere on the planet now, all you do is see hundreds of people staring at their phones. So it’s not a music-business problem; this is a humanity problem. I think the internet and technology is just turning us into a very antisocial species where human connection is being lost.

“People don’t talk to each other any more – they fucking text. That’s what our world has become. And what’s next? What comes next after texting? Because I’m sure technology will advance in the next hundred years and there’ll be even less interaction between human beings.”

He adds: “I just find it to be a very scary thing. As a reader of a lot of science-fiction, the planet is a much different place than it was before the internet. And it’s just the way I choose to live my life. I know other people have the way they choose to live their lives, and I’m not gonna tell anybody else how to live their lives.”

Ian’s comments reflect the frustration many artists experience in concert, and come on the heels of a verbal attack by Disturbed frontman David Draiman, who was frustrated watching a “rude” fan texting throughout one of the band’s shows this week.

Draiman told a March 23 crowd in Dallas, Texas: “Now she’s all pissed off. She thinks that I did something wrong to her. I love it. Welcome to the age of the internet, ladies and fucking gentlemen.”

Anthrax will appear at Bloodstock in August as part of a summer European tour that begins in late May.