While walking around on campus this semester I noticed something disturbing. I noticed that more students than not were walking around or sitting down with their eyes plastered on their cell phones. Of course, this is nothing new and I have been guilty of walking from class to class in a daze by the digital messages, however one day, it began to disturb me. It caused me to consider one important question that's commonly considered in regards to many things in life; How much is too much?
We as a society are stopping to take a picture of the flowers rather than to smell them. We can search for tattoos of flowers that are fed to us through Pinterest, however, can we really say we know what they smell like? We feel the need to capture every moment to share with our family, friends, and followers such as what we're eating, wearing, or watching. We've found a way to materialize our experiences and memories. I have considered how many things I've missed personally because my eyes were on my phone rather than what was right in front of me. I missed my niece blowing out her birthday candles because I was too focused getting her on camera. I missed the bus because I was too busy watching ten-second videos my friends shared that only last 24 hours. I missed more time to study because I spent all day trying to capture the perfect selfie to post on Instagram. I missed moments I could've been fully living because I was fully invested in capturing it in a digital picture or video.
Not only is this causing us to not fully experience life, we're missing out on important opportunities. One opportunity that is on the rise right now is the chance to help someone else. We are quick to pull out our phones as we observe someone getting punched or a homeless person dozing off, but lack the same consideration for the people appearing on our screens. Instead of breaking up the fights or feeding people that are hungry, we're recording them so our friends can see too.
Recently three well-known rappers, Lil Durk, YFN Lucci, and Jeezy, performed at the Irving Plaza in New York City. I saw more of Jeezy on phone screens than I did of himself on stage, not even ten feet away from me. Despite the close proximity, the space between us was filled with phone screens capturing what was happening right before us on stage. The eyes surrounding me were more lit by the screens in front of them than the lights on the stage. I looked around as the crowd screamed along with the rapper, holding their phones up to capture him saying the same words as them, and I realized we had all paid for a ticket to document the event rather than enjoy it.
As social media transforms and allows us to do more creative and shareable things, one thing we should question as a society is; how much is too much? How much of our lives will we spend materializing our memories rather than enjoying our experiences?
