Sunday night had to be a great night for almost everyone inside of Blackman Auditorium, as Ben Folds rocked the house with a fantastic set. It was an amazing night for everyone, it seems, except for the two girls who were sitting directly in front of me.

Regardless of what the audience was doing – standing, sitting, singing, shouting – these two girls remained in their seats. No, not sitting; that’s the wrong word. They were sprawled out, with limbs somehow spread onto the seats in the front, back and sides of them.

These girls were dressed to the nines and looked like someone told them to expect a good night out. However, Folds’ set seemed to barely impress them. Instead, one spent the time using her iPhone to surf the Internet, check Facebook and even, to my total astonishment, make a five-minute long phone call that I tried my best to ignore. The other girl did basically the same thing with her Treo.

These girls were loud and trashy: the one’s I’d expect to see traipsing up and down Commonwealth Avenue any weekend night rather than the standard crowd at a piano-pop show. They had expensive purses, expensive shoes, expensive hair, expensive jewelry (and, quite possibly, expensive breasts) – probably all purchased with Daddy’s American Express.

They complained about everything. Topics included:

“Why are the guys in front of us standing?” (It was probably because most everyone else was and also because your feet would have been on their shoulders if they were sitting.)

“Why hasn’t he played ‘Kate’ yet?” (It was the only song they liked or maybe even knew, and when Folds played it they got up to dance – if you could call their convulsions that – then sat right back down.)

“Why is this concert so long?” (They obviously had better things to do, like cruise over to some Sunday night party at one of the Stetsons.)

Their behavior that night got me thinking: How could two people be so unaware, or maybe just ambivalent, of their surroundings? Could they not feel the piercing stares at the back of their heads; see people turning to look at what could possibly be going on in the row behind them; or hear the loud snickers at their bizarre behavior?

Maybe there’s a point when people stop noticing the world around them. It would explain the erratic and bizarre actions of celebrities like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Perhaps when your worldview becomes so self-centered and so many people tell you how great and special and wonderful you are, it becomes impossible to look outward and consider what others think.

In an age of instant everything, maybe we all need to step back and enjoy the moment. If you’re closing your world off, only letting in your best friend and your iPhone, what are you really experiencing? Why spend $10 to sprawl out on a Blackman Auditorium seat just to talk on your iPhone, Facebook your friends and complain about the people standing in front of you? You could have done the same thing in your residence hall room, only you would have saved $10, been a little more comfortable and stopped a dozen of people from hating your guts.

I don’t know about you two, but I had a good time Sunday night. Come down from your castle and join us common folk. It’s fun down here.

– Matt Collette is a middler journalism major and member of The News staff.