Kevin Hart on the Dark Side of Social Media | Joe Rogan

Do you ever feel like you do too much? Like maybe I just need to take a little break here. Do you ever feel like that? I think the perception definitely perceives reality. You know, what looks like so much isn't always so much because you have a schedule. And you know, within that schedule, there's the things that mean the most that come and act as downtime. You know, me and my house is downtime, even though it's still active and I gotta be dead and I'm with the kids and a wife and it's conversation and I'm running around and I'm back and forth, that still acts as downtime for me. Like I'm shutting the work off. So the phone is in the office. I'm not going back to get it until the morning and it's all conversation. It's all TV. It's all Taco Tuesdays. It's couch and cuddling, you know, baby time, whatever. That's my downtime because I've taken a step outside of the other shit. That's wise. That's what I think I do very well. I can step outside the other shit. I can separate it. So I think when you're able to do that, then you're managing your mental. You know what I mean? Like if it's always one thing all the time, that's how you fucking drive yourself crazy because you're never shutting it off. And I think I do a good job of shutting this off and focusing on this. Like when I'm with my family, I'm with my family. Nothing is, nothing interjects or comes in between. That's fantastic. That's so important. That's 100%. That's beautiful. You figure that out? That's gigantic. I think I figured it out. That's it. I think I figured it out. I mean, you've got so much success. It's not only you have to be with that fucking phone all the time. That's the phone is the big one, right? The phone is the gift and the curse. I think that we shot out the gate and saw the gift. Oh my God, it's community. It's connecting us. We're able to share. We're able to meet new people. We're able to stay in communication with old people, find new people. As entertainer, I can engage with my fans and this is so dope. And then after that, you get hit with the curse. And the curse is there's a high level of negativity that's out there that's on that shit. You know, there's a lot of people that are, you know, not happy or going through things and they interject a certain amount of negativity and hatred through these devices. These devices are the easiest way to touch everybody. So when you're just consumed on that shit all day, you start to see yourself being a part of the negative shit. So what I've learned to do is go, I don't need to see that. I don't need to see that shit. I don't pay that any mind. I don't read that shit for what? It's not helping me. It's not making me better. It's not pushing me to new limits. If anything, it's taking up just creative space by me literally spending time going and navigating through what I think is a bunch of bullshit. So I don't let the device beat me. And at one point, I definitely did. At one point it was everything. It was everything. It was, you know, now I separated. I've known- How'd you break clear of it? What do you realize what it is? When you see the bad, you know, when you see the bad side of it, I thought the other day, this is some real shit and it really made me think my phone died. My phone died and I'm driving and I was using the fucking maps. And I was like, oh shit, what the fuck? I don't know where I'm going. And I sat and I was like, yo, how did we, how did we get from point A to point B before the map shit? What were we doing? I used to print out directions from Google maps. I remember that. But then before that, how did you get to the places where you were going that you didn't know how to get to? I don't even remember. Do you remember Thomas guides? Do you ever have a Thomas guide? I did have a Thomas guide. When I first moved to LA, I'd get one of those- I did have a Thomas guide. Giant ass. Giant ass. 100%. Bill Burr had one until like three years ago. Bill probably still uses it. Shouts out to Bill Burr. But it really fucked me up because I was like, how do, we don't even know how, how to do the common, the norm anymore, because the device has made everything available. And I literally had to drive to a store where I could buy a charger, charge up my phone, to get back and use the map to get to where the fuck I was going. I said, I had no idea how to get there. I didn't know no numbers by heart. I didn't know who I was going to call. What phone? Like, yo, this was the moment where I was like, what level of success have I reached? I just pulled over and I sat there and I was like, how the fuck am I going to get to where I'm going? You should have a spare phone, man. I don't know what it was. You need a backup phone. It felt like the end of the world. It felt like it was over. I was like, shit. Isn't that crazy how dependent you are? But that's when the light bulb started to click. It started to click. How did we function with, ow, I want to go backwards a little bit. It's still there. I still need it. I still think it's dope with all of the things that we can do on it, but I still want to be able to put it down and step away from it. I want my kids to be able to step away from it. That's why when I come in the house, my phone is up. Because I can't bitch and get playing the jaw about being on your phone if you see me doing the same thing. So that time, those conversations, me wanting to know about your day, you talking to me about your day, your friends, who you like, who don't you like? My daughter, what boy, who, what? No. All right, God, my son. Yeah, I like somebody. Who? Oh, Jesus, here it comes. It's a great thing. And I want to be able to have those moments. And I think it's big to make sure that you prioritize that. Are you worried about what comes next? 100%. I'm worried that something's going to be way more intrusive than that. It's what he means. It's already happening. The biggest scare happened already with the FaceTime shit that happened where Apple on the iPhones, it was like people could listen in to your. Oh, yeah, if you didn't even pick up the FaceTime. They could just listen into it. And that was the scariest shit ever. Because if it's that easy to have a bug like that, what's the thing that's not a bug that's there that you just don't know about? Oh, there's definitely government listening to us right now. 100%. 100%. Recording everything everybody says. And then in case one day you do something wrong, they'll pull you aside. Mr. Hart, we'd like you to sit down for a minute. We're going to play you something. 100%. So the fear is the next level of the immersion. Intrusive. Yeah. I think everything has become intrusive now. The toughest thing for me is that there is no privacy outside my home. The amount of money that you have to now spend just on security, on people to be with me, security to be on my home. There literally is no privacy. And not that I bitch can plan about it. Because without the fans, without the people that support me, I wouldn't be where I am. But there is no middle ground. There is no handshakes anymore. It's how you doing. Right, right, right. Handshake is so much better to get a moment. We can talk if that's what you want. No, no, no. Yo, say it now. It's kind of weird because you're doing this to me. It's kind of weird to have a conversation. So you're just starting to see yourself become a little older and wiser and just really see the times for what they are and see the direction that we're going in as people. And just hope and pray that we find a middle ground. Because I think right now there isn't one. Yeah. That's what I'm feeling now. No, I feel it too. Especially, I mean, what you're talking about is you being super famous and losing all your privacy. But everyone's losing their privacy. Slowly but surely. It's happening to you because you're very famous and because you do something that's in the public eye and people want to see you and they want to stick their camera in front of you. But there's going to come a point in time where what we're dealing with now, which is like you have to turn your phone on. You have to reach out to somebody. You have to put something up. That step's going to be out of the way. And it's just going to be people being able to access your life. You know the bad? Here's what I'll say. It's bad. That really fucks with me. I don't like that negativity is the want. Yeah. Like the thing that's popular is the failure, the fuck up, the fight that I can catch, the hateful moment that I can catch and post. The bad is being highlighted and celebrated. That's what fucks with me, what the social media shit now. What really bothers me is when you see these things online, like a fight and there's a man hitting a woman and it's captured, that's bad. The bad thing is that you watched, that the video was more important than the actual help or the moment to step in. When you see these things where you're catching people do these things to kids and it's caught, the moment of what you got and what you want to post and get likes or whatever on is the focus instead of the help. Yeah. And that's the part that is just, I just have a hard time processing. I have a hard time processing what the likes mean to certain people. Well, you get an extraordinary amount of attention. So it doesn't mean anything to you, the way it means something to a regular person. But to a regular person, if they can catch some world star video and put it up there like, dude, that's my video. That's my video. Look, my video got five million hits. My video has gone viral. My video is everywhere. For them, it's like the point of excitement. That's why when they see you, they're like, oh shit, how often are they going to run into Kevin Hart at Costco or wherever the fuck you were? I definitely run into me on a, you know, I'm in a bathroom, restaurant, and I go to the bathroom. You know, by the way that I went to the bathroom, you could definitely tell I had the shit. I was moving fast. I was, you know, it was one of those abrupt, you know, why you're eating. Yeah, I'm eating bad, so I didn't eat bad in a while. My stomach immediately said, this is not going to happen today. So I get up and I go. And literally, like three seconds, I hear it as I'm walking, oh, they're going to Kevin Hart. And as I'm walking by, a guy gets up, follows me in the bathroom, and he's like, yo, I got to get a picture, man. And I said, let me go to the bathroom. When I'm done, I'll take a picture with you. I go to the bathroom. This is a true story. Hand on the Bible. Hand on the Bible. I assume the guy is outside the bathroom because as I'm going, I see him and I say what I say. I get done. I go to the sink, wash my hands. He was just sitting behind the wall, and he's got his phone out. And I'm like, did he just take me while I was shitting? Did he put the phone over the thing? Oh, Jesus. I'm about to be on, oh my god, it's over. This is it. This is my nightmare. Here we go. They're about to put something up of me shitting. It's the bottom of my feet. It's whatever. But he just waited. And that moment was so important that he was in the bathroom. And as soon as I got to come on, let's take it. I said, let's go outside the bathroom. Let's take a picture. That's a bathroom. I said, I'm not going to. I'm a nice guy, man. I'm going to take a picture. He said, I just didn't want to lose you. And I'm like, there's not even a thought. There's not even a thought about it's a bathroom. Right. How weird is that? It's a bathroom. Man, this is a pretty fucking weird moment, man. This is weird. Following you waiting for your shit. You just waited for me to finish shit, and I don't know what you got on your phone. You're too big for me to ask to go through your phone. Whatever you got, you got. But I had to go out and take the picture. And I remember going back to the table just like, what's happening? What's happening? That's so strange. At this point, what is happening? Yeah, that didn't exist before. I think if you were famous before, people just wanted to get an autograph or shake your hand. What passed the autograph stage? When was the last time you get an autograph? It's been a while. It's been a while. I don't think I would know how to write it. I don't think I would know what to put down. It's been a minute, man. Yeah. And I want to make this very clear. You're not complaining. I don't knock it. I understand. Once again, I want people to, more importantly, understand the fact that I welcome it. I welcome the moment that I can talk in and converse with the fan. But it should be that. Normal, with two people. The moments are better when they're real. And after a real moment, you get a picture because you're like, yo, he was actually a nice guy. Or I had no idea that you would be this calm and cool. You don't even get to see how genuine of a person I am, because the first thing you do, you stick the camera in the face. And that's when people think that you're an asshole, because they have the intrusive moment that then gets met with the, can you please? I'm sorry. You don't have to stick it in my face. Damn, you ain't got to be like that. Wait a minute. Oh, they'd look for that, too. They'd look to turn on you. Because now you get your moment. You look for the negative moment. When did shit start getting weird for you? How many years in? I don't know. It's been pretty crazy. It's been pretty crazy for the last four to five years. And the last three have gotten insane, because now you're on an international level. So it's global. And the following is bigger. And it's all ages, which is really, really good. But I think for comedians, it's a different thing, because you feel like you know comedians. You're laughing. We're in your homes. Everything is met with warmth. So when you see a comedian, especially if you're a fan of a comedian, you're associating everything with funny, and you're just looking for the funny moment. You're looking past the normal moment. You almost are frowned upon if you're normal, if you just chill. Because everybody wants the funny moment. Right, they thought you were going to be funny all the time. I'm supposed to pop lock right on site. If it's 2 in the morning and you run into me and I say, hey, how you doing, man? That's not enough.