Sunday evening, as Justin Timberlake wrapped up the Super Bowl halftime show, I couldn’t help but watch the teenage boy beside him concentrate on posting a selfie of the experience.
This wasn’t a quick snap of a photo to post later — from the moment #selfiekid took the picture, he was looking down at his phone. Afterward, I was surprised to realize that this instance didn’t annoy me. I actually related to the young selfietaker.
I mentally assessed the similar occasions I have experienced and felt guilty. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have my phone out for the majority of the One America Appeal benefit last semester. Still, I know I’m one of millions of people who engage in this behavior every day.
We somehow obtain the opportunity of a lifetime, whether that be breathing the same air as five former presidents or dancing beside Justin Timberlake, and we eclipse the experience by taking photos for our Instagram feed. Our motives are pure — we want to relive this memory forever and share it with our friends. However, by watching life through a screen, we miss out on the ability to truly enjoy the moment we’re in.
There are elements of an experience that simply cannot be portrayed through a screen. The spectacularity of any show is diminished with a camera and because our eyes are focused on images on our phones, music is not thoroughly appreciated. The chance to make the moment even better disappears when we pull our phones out of our pockets.
This obsession with capturing everything in our lives has caused social interaction to evolve in an incredibly unhealthy fashion. There is no longer a need to ask loved ones about their day because we’ve already seen it on their Snapchat story. Conversely, we are upset when they don’t ask about ours, regardless of the fact that they saw our posts. We judge others for their captions and filters, essentially discounting the characteristics that make them human.
I’m not proposing a ban on selfies, social media or the beautification of Instagram feeds. In fact, I encourage each of those activities. I am, however, advocating for appreciation of the adventures. Moving forward, I’ll concentrate on living in the moment and hope to snap some photos in the midst. After all, capturing photos of life is a fantastic privilege, but it means nothing if we can’t tell the stories that accompany them.