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Pics…Or It Didn’t Happen!

By Courtney Wentz

Everywhere you turn, someone has their phone out to snap a photo of where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with.

When you go to a show, whether it’s a concert, play, musical, comedy show, most of the audience has their phone out to record or take a picture of the performance, instead of living in the moment and enjoying the show. You aren’t enjoying the show if you’re on your phone the entire time trying to get that non-blurry photo.

Even when people go on a trip or vacation, you feel like you’re there because your friend is posting every second on social media. Your phone is not your brain. Yes, the photo is going to be a great reminder, but how well are you going to remember that moment? How you were feeling? How environment felt around you?

Last September, the BBC wrote an article where they talked to Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut. She said, “What I think is going on is that we treat the camera as a sort of external memory device. We have this expectation that the camera is going to remember things for us, so we stop processing that object and we don’t engage in the types of things that would help us remember it.”

A photo may say a thousand words, but it’s not going to tell you how you were feeling in that exact moment and you’re not going to remember it because you were too busy thinking about how this would make a great profile picture or Instagram post.

When you go to a concert, the crowd is lit up by cellphone screens, not fans being there with the band. When you go to a play or a musical, people are trying to seek taking a video instead of being in the world the actors on stage are creating.

People should be more focused on enjoying the experience and living in the moment, instead of worrying whether or not your hair looks good for the photo op.

One of my cousins is always posting photos of everything he’s doing on Facebook. It’s great to see recent photos of him because he lives far away, but I can’t help to feel that he should just write a post about the things he’s doing and the things his students make. I would rather know what he’s thinking and feeling.

Last month, YouTuber and author John Green said in his Drowzees and Masterpieces: Thoughts from London video, “At times it feels like documenting a meaningful experience is more important than having the experience.”

The next time you go to a concert, museum, play, musical, comedy show, or leave the middle of nowhere Massachusetts, put the camera down. Tell people a story about your experience with words, instead of a photo because you’re clogging up Facebook with all your selfies.

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