I write this as a plea to the people of the world to please: Put.. Your Phones and Cameras.. Away! At concerts, sporting events, speeches, plays – any public setting where many people are gathered & focused on a singular event.
I mean did you really just pay $80 for this concert ticket, $20 to park and $8 per beer to watch this show through the lens of your phone or cam? Because I sure didn’t. I bought this ticket to enjoy an experience and make memories I’ll have for the rest of my life. Not memories of you, with your hand in my face, trying desperately to capture blurry, misaligned footage of our favorite band/comedian/speaker.
And what exactly are you doing with this footage? Going home and watching it.. probably not. Showing it to others? Sure, but what are we talking about here.. a few photos, a snippet of a video? Certainly not ALL the footage you spent 80% of your time at the event shooting.
Just a heads up before we go any further, this post is meant to be taken in jest. While I do feel people should live in the moment more, and not feel the need to capture everything on photo/video, I realize we live in an instant-share and consume digital world, and this post isn’t going to change that. Plus I’m also an offender of my own rules. Did you really expect me to come this close to Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale and NOT capture it and share it with the world??
But seriously, who do you think you are Ansel Adams? You really think that shot your straining to get, and in so doing, obstructing other people’s view, is Pulitzer worthy? Here’s a bet for you. You take 99% of the footage out there shot by these wanna-be Annie Liebovitz’s, and I’ll take my friend Google, and I guarantee I find a better pic or video every time.
Pictures and videos used to signify something truly special. Moments worthy of capturing forever. No longer. Now EVERYTHING needs to be captured, the majority of it never seeing the light of day. I hesitate to blame technology (it’s us, the users, the blame lies with) though it is technology that has enabled us to act in this fashion. It’s just too damn easy to capture moments with our smarty pants phones. But just because we CAN, doesn’t mean we SHOULD – Jurassic Park taught us that!
I first made this realization at Mardi Gras last year, and discussed my thoughts in this blog here. This follow up, so to speak, was prompted after attending the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, and suffering through the awfulness of everyone around me trying to record every single second of the event. Smarten up people. Your sacrificing in-the-moment enjoyment of these events to get some bootleg footage that you’ll do very little with after the event. Life can unfortunately be too short sometimes. Learn to enjoy it in the moment. Not constantly be trying to capture every moment.
And before you jump down my throat and say R.J. you just don’t get it, we’re a share everything instantly generation – stop it. Stop it right there. I’m a social media manager and I’ve likely shared more on Facebook & Twitter today than you have all week. And it’s from that perspective that I write this article. Put the phone down. Enjoy the experience. You’ll thank yourself after you do. Because then you’ll have these weird little things in your head that may seem foreign to you, but give you joy to think about..
Memories 🙂