Everyone’s heard of “main character energy.” Whether it’s used to describe the vibe of the day or an outlook on life, Gen Z has decided to embrace its own experience being the pivotal way in which it perceives the world. But this energy often causes Gen Z to act in a way that’s not considerate of others, and these behaviors can be seen clearly in concert venues. 

I’m not saying people don’t have the right to enjoy concerts in their own way. They totally can, but they should also realize a concert is a group event. This outlook is something Gen Z seems to have forgotten.

During concerts, fans should alter their verbal and physical behaviors to be considerate of others. To make it more enjoyable for everyone in the audience, Gen Z concertgoers should practice basic crowd etiquette, including using their phone for a few pictures and videos throughout the concert but not the whole time, refraining from complaining about the performer or asking inappropriate questions and taking breaks to sit instead of standing the whole show.

As the first generation born in the digital age, Gen Z has forgotten how to be present. While there is nothing wrong with taking pictures and filming clips of a show, your concert experience shouldn’t happen entirely through a screen. I’ve been there, done that. You think you need videos to look back on the concert experience, when in reality, you rarely view those videos after you post them. Not only does filming the whole performance impede your ability to be present in the moment, but it also forces those behind you to look over your screen to see the concert that they also paid for.

There should be a middle ground in using technology in concerts. Your phone doesn’t need to be locked up, but it also shouldn’t be out for the entire two-hour show. Take plenty of pictures before and after, document clips of your favorite songs, but also put the phone down to dance along or talk to your neighbors before the show starts.

Another way Gen Z misses the mark in crowd etiquette is in audience interactions. Recently, I enjoyed this university’s Homecoming Comedy Show. Many students expressed dismay at their phones being locked up in Yondr pouches. But to me, that wasn’t the most concerning point of the night.

Marcello, in a very nice gesture, opened up to audience questions at the end of his set, something comedians rarely do. In response to what seemed like a genuine gesture to allow college students to ask about fun moments or his career, some asked for birthday messages or for merch to be autographed.

Although it’s their prerogative to ask those kinds of questions, it felt that those were not the kinds of responses that the Q&A was meant to elicit. These kinds of questions, that people ask for their own sake, are a byproduct of the lack of consciousness of modern audiences.

Concert experiences suffer the same fate, with people loudly complaining about the performer or refusing to participate in crowd activities. These verbal behaviors aren’t the only downfall of concert experiences, but the physical reactions of audience members can also make a concert less enjoyable.

I’ve experienced several concert venues and settings, and one of my best experiences was in 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. The performer was Stray Kids, and for almost the entire concert, I was able to remain seated without my view being blocked. To some, that may sound boring, but in higher sections, it can feel dangerous to stand or dance because there is very limited floor space in front of the seats. Arenas tend to suffer this problem the most, with what feels like a foot of space in front of the seats in higher sections. Standing for hours can become uncomfortable or just plain scary, being high up with that level of floor space. Dancing for part of the concert but sitting during breaks or slower songs can allow the audience to still enjoy the performance without standing for three hours.

In contrast, seeing the same group in 2025 was very different in terms of the crowd. The show was unfortunately taking place in the middle of the heat wave in June 2025. While the concert did happen, it was cut short due to concerns for the fans’ and performers’ health. While the heat was a major factor in health issues, fans were also still trying to dance or stand, some even rushing to form a crowd on the first level when it was assumed to be time for the carts to make the laps around the park. There is an innate responsibility on the viewer to make use of the resources available to them in these situations, rather than always standing up at a concert. In a heat wave, sitting in the provided seats instead of rushing to crowd a section of the stadium is the responsible thing to do for your safety and the safety of others. The illusion that the performer will see you specifically in the crowd needs to take a back seat to creating a safe environment. 

Fans have the responsibility to make choices that create a fun and safe concert environment. While the concert tickets may be bought in groups of two or three, the experience is one for dozens, hundreds or thousands of people at once. To make the concert experience fair and safe, whether in the nosebleeds or the pit, everyone should be conscious of their phone use, verbal comments and if they are physically obstructing the view of others by standing. Being the main character is fun in everyday life, but it can shape someone else’s concert experience into a negative one.

Sophia Williams is a senior architecture major. She can be reached at sgw76@terpmail.umd.edu.

While living on North Campus last year at the University of Maryland, I quickly discovered a pet peeve that still frustrates me to this day. Maybe it’s because I’m an architecture major, or maybe it’s because I refuse to be what I can only describe as a phone zombie when walking, but the intersection from Lot Z to Knight Hall is the bane of my existence. 

You might think that statement is dramatic, but walking the path from Easton Hall to the architecture building makes it clear that the construction of the Purple Line at this intersection created pedestrian crossings that are not in line with how students walk through campus. 

Instead of creating a crosswalk between the sidewalk near the parking lot that directly crosses to the sidewalk in front of Knight Hall, pedestrians are given three options: take a left and walk uphill to the next crosswalk, only to walk downhill again. Turn right and you’ll have to walk till you get to the crosswalk, then walk back uphill. But the option I see most pedestrians choose is option three: look both ways and cross three lanes of traffic. 

The Purple Line is set to begin operating in 2027, and as of September 2025, more than 82 percent of the project had been completed. While construction continues to be ongoing on campus at this university, many sections are now completed, such as Rossborough Lane and Campus Drive. But even though much of the campus construction is done, the Purple Line will continue to harm pedestrians long after construction is completed.

Finishing these sections has led to the addition of new infrastructure on campus, such as a traffic light at the intersection of Campus Drive and Regents Drive. While some advocate that the new signal increases pedestrian safety, many bypass this light and head down a little further on Regents Drive and cross near the side of the physics building, which is north of the new signal. 

This secondary crosswalk poses new challenges because it’s more difficult for pedestrians to see incoming traffic from the light when cars are lined up to turn at the signal. There’s no easy fix — reducing the times between signal changes could be helpful for pedestrians, but could be harmful to drivers who may rush through them.

Purple Line construction on campus has not only changed how pedestrians navigate campus, but also how they now navigate micromobility users. A project undertaken by this university in 2024 reimagined bike lane connections throughout campus, outlining new lanes that this university has committed to making a reality. 

While this infrastructure is important for the safety of micromobility users, protecting them from the dangers of the Purple Line, they have become harmful to pedestrians. The two-lane bike lane added to Campus Drive has no barrier from the pedestrian sidewalk, making it easy for pedestrians to obstruct the lane from micromobility users, and has no signage at intersections where pedestrians frequently cross for micromobility users to slow down or stop. 

The common denominator in all these safety concerns is that these new interventions are a result of the Purple Line Construction. While this university is not in charge of the state-created construction project, it can analyze new pedestrian patterns and the ways existing ones may need to be modified because of Purple Line completion. 

These problems have easy solutions: create a crosswalk at Knight Hall that makes more sense for pedestrian crossing patterns, shorten the time between traffic signal changes at newly added traffic signals and create barriers between bike lanes and pedestrian sidewalks with stop signs or yield signage so pedestrians can cross the lanes safely. 

If this university does not understand the need for new safety conventions because of Purple Line construction, pedestrians could continue to be harmed after the construction ends.

Sophia Williams is a senior architecture major. She can be reached at sgw76@terpmail.umd.edu.

As a transfer student, I already knew my college experience was not a conventional one. 

In movies and media, it’s expected that you go away to college right after high school for four years. I was already insecure about my college experience as a transfer student when I started looking to apply to the University of Maryland, but the admissions process made me feel distanced from the attention that incoming high school seniors receive. 

The admissions website offers three tour options to prospective students, yet none of these options are exclusively catered toward transfer students. Incoming transfers make up a large portion of incoming students, with about 2,000 undergraduate transfer students enrolling each year. One would assume that with this many new transfer students, this university would offer specialized services for them.

The largest failure of the admissions department is this lack of resources. In my experience touring the university as a transfer student, I was placed with high school juniors and seniors. Many transfer students don’t need to know how to submit their SAT scores or AP credits because they’ve already gone through the process, but they’re grouped in with people who have completely different needs. 

When I asked about transfer services or organizations on my tour, it almost seemed like transfer students didn’t exist. When I asked about transfer student housing, I was told we could live in apartments on campus, such as South Campus Commons and Courtyards, but what I wasn’t told was that the deadline to apply for these apartments was before the deadline to apply to the university. When I met other transfer students at orientation, I heard the same story over and over again: I applied for on-campus housing, but I haven’t received any placement, so now I’m scrambling to find an off-campus apartment. 

Tour guides should share more information about transfer student housing, dining, organizations and classes, just like they do for students coming in from high school. Incoming high school seniors are told about resident dining plans, clubs they can join and general education requirements they’ll have to meet. But when sharing their trademark stories on why the tour guide chose this university, I rarely hear that the guide started at a community college or other university and later transferred. 

Previous initiatives, such as transfer mentorship programs, have been tried. But they’re not widely advertised or talked about, so they appear short-lived. When perusing through Transfer and Off-Campus Student Life Office’s website for mentorship programs, none are mentioned. Transfers deserve to build a community through meeting fellow transfers and hearing their stories and advice, whether it’s through tours or a dedicated mentoring program. The engineering school at this university provides a mentorship experience to incoming transfers. If the engineering school can do it, why can’t it become a campuswide standard?

These failures cause incoming students to feel alienated in the admissions process. It’s even more important to create more transfer student-friendly experiences now, especially as the number of transfer students in the United States is rising due to affordability issues. 

The admission process can start fixing this oversight by creating an informative tour that specifically caters to transfer students. While this would require hiring more student tour guides and researching and creating a new tour route, I believe it will boost transfer student visits to campus. This new tour would also allow the university to host nearby community colleges and provide a tour specific to prospective students looking to transfer to this university. 

This new tour should talk about issues unique to the transfer experience. Students should be given the resources for how they can learn if their community college credits transfer and their equivalents to classes at this university. The tour should inform students about transfer student organizations, such as the Transfer and Off-Campus Student Life Office, and how to get involved with these programs. It should also mention that the university offers classes specifically to transfer students to help with the transition process. 

The tour should also be honest about the fact that transfer students are the lowest priority for on-campus housing, and many will not be guaranteed housing by the university. Supplemental resources for off-campus housing and nearby student housing should be given to tour goers. Dining options such as the block dining plan and Dining Dollars should be explained in detail, because many transfer students are not on-campus residents. 

Many people take an unconventional path to getting their college degree, but that doesn’t mean these students should be overlooked. Transfer students should be made to feel welcomed on campus, not more ostracized.

Sophia Williams is a senior architecture major. She can be reached at sgw76@terpmail.umd.edu.