Ask HN: Why do audience members cheer wildly in technology keynotes?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=650056

by amichail • 17 years ago

15 25 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Given my experience with academic conferences, I find this behavior in technology keynotes to be downright bizarre.

Obviously people don't behave in this way in academia. What's different here?

Are audience members told to behave in this way? Is it peer pressure?

And why do they get all excited over the most trivial of things?

Could it be that the more they cheer as a group, the more money they will make (e.g., by getting more people to buy/use the products/services mentioned in the keynote and later their software that is associated with those products/services)?

gregking• 17 years ago

I find the behavior a bit odd myself but liken it to the same extreme passion that some people exhibit during professional sporting events.

chwahoo• 17 years ago

I've wondered the same thing! During Google's IO conference, the speakers expected and encouraged applause. Apple conferences are an even stronger example.

It feels phoney, but perhaps it isn't. I don't think the thought process is complex enough to involve considerations of financial benefit from cheering.

My theory is that there is a critical mass of "fans" of the company (Google, Apple, etc), and they are very enthusiastic about new features/products while the rest of the crowd claps out of reflex/habit.

amichail• 17 years ago

Maybe this critical mass consists mostly of paid plants?

rufo2• 17 years ago

No. I've cheered for new features or things I thought were particularly cool, and if I'm a plant then I'm seriously underpaid.

aswanson3• 17 years ago

Why is this being disparaged? This has been a known technique of promoting every product from rock bands to web sites. Well within the realm of possibility.

lanstein• 17 years ago

Lars definitely seemed put off by the lack of applause at I/O during his Wave demo.

mattking• 17 years ago

why not?

chaosmachine• 17 years ago

On earth, humans cheer wildly when they see things they like. This could be anything from a man throwing a ball into a net, to a useful new operating system feature. It's considered a way to express approval, especially when gathered in a crowd, where shouting words would be less effective.

See also: booing.

bdr• 17 years ago

It's fun. Try it.

anigbrowl• 17 years ago

Because they're expecting to get a goodie bag at the end of the presentation and are expressing their desire for it to contain a lot of expensive new stuff.

hvs• 17 years ago

Joy. It's a human emotion.

ryanwaggoner• 17 years ago

Damn, these comments make us sound like a bunch of robots :)

jodrellblank2• 17 years ago

"Geeks cross into uncanny valley. Very close to human behaviour. Described as 'unnerving' by industry pundits".

Server monitoring software that cheers when good things happen, boos when bad things happen, and gasps when major changes happen, that would be interesting. Not "play cheer.wav" but something more crowdy and cumulative.

jodrellblank2• 17 years ago

Why go to a conference when you could watch the news on the net?

Atmosphere. A sense of belonging, and 'being there'. A band comes on stage and plays a song you like, you cheer them. A company representative comes on stage and announces something you like, you cheer them. The events are structured to be similar.

ghshephard2• 17 years ago

Some significant portion of the audience's life is just about to change significantly - and they can already sense the downstream bliss. I downright cried in joy the first time I saw OS X terminal.app's ability to dynamically resize linewraps (phoo on you secureCRT), and Terminal Tabs that detach, no preset max-column-width, or even line-buffer! I was ready to dance for Joy! Imagine being hit with a whole host of those features - It would be a hard person indeed who could hold in all of that emotion.

dusklight• 17 years ago

Here's me hoping you forgot your <sarcasm /> tags

holygoat2• 17 years ago

Here's me thinking you don't spend that much time in a terminal :)

aswanson3• 17 years ago

We must get you away from your terminal and into a bar in your nearest city post-haste. Latitude, longitude, please?

dmlorenzetti• 17 years ago

All the comments posted so far are right-- they explain why people might cheer. But nobody has really addressed the very real difference between technology and academic venues (the original poster's question).

I've only been at one academic meeting where people really let loose and cheered. It was in the late 1990s, at a conference on energy efficiency. A presenter brought a pretty fancy bike up on stage and talked about riding it rather than driving. Somebody in the audience shouted out, "Sure, but what did the bike cost?"

There was a moment of pause while everybody recognized the presenter had probably a $3000 bicycle up there. But he hoisted it over his head, stepped back up to the mike, and said, "I'll tell you what it cost... What I was willing to pay!"

The whole audience erupted in a sustained wave of cheers. It was, as other commenters have noted, an expression of approval, an outlet for their passion, and just plain fun.

In some ways, though, I think the setup for that wild cheering was the conflict that it resolved. If his presentation had started out with "This is my bike. It cost a lot, but I was willing to pay it..." I doubt anybody would have cheered. Maybe academic conferences tend to discourage expressions of joy exactly because they tend to formalize conflict, to steer it down certain accepted lines? Whereas tech presentations probably have a lot less inherent conflict that has to be channeled in order to keep it productive?

rufo2• 17 years ago

Because for many of us, technology isn't just our job - it's a defining characteristic of who we are.

And given that many of us debate operating systems and programming languages, discuss tools and improvements, and learn new technologies in our off time, as fun - well, given all that, I don't think expressing that passion at a major event is all that peculiar.

aswanson3• 17 years ago

Amichail, you at once come up with the most poignant and hilarious observation/questions on this board. This is probably unintentional, which adds to the level of entertainment. Please continue with these types of submissions.

drhowarddrfine• 17 years ago

It's today's TV generation used to seeing and hearing everything wildly applauded whether it deserves it or not. Every play ends with a standing ovation. Every homerun requires a 'curtain call'. Every song sung has throngs screaming to the point where you wonder if anyone is actually listening.

Serious students of the technology are listening, not applauding or "high fiving" themselves for doing so. It's childishness at best. Low-brow at worst and more appropriate at some hillbilly bar.

herval• 17 years ago

hello, Mr. Spock

Ask HN: Why do audience members cheer wildly in technology keynotes?

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