The Girl With A Brown Bag

When they sang I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing, Aerosmith were on to something. Sure, they wrote it as a love song but thinking about it now it could apply to a lot of things in life.

Case study one

A boy likes a girl and she happens to like him too. He takes her for an evening ride in his father’s car happy that she agreed to go out at that time of day. They young lady however is busy on her phone. She keeps updating her friends through social media on what snack they are having or how cold it is but being with him makes everything warm. She is actually missing the scenery and not giving him the attention he really wants.

He stops the car at the top of a hill where he knows they will be able to see the show. As she chose to ‘freeze and shine’, he takes of his jacket and drapes it on her shoulder before they get out of the car. A few minutes later, she hears blasts. Looking up she sees sparks of many colors – fireworks! Quickly, she takes out her phone and goes live on her social pages captioning the event as ‘Aaaww, look what he has done’ or ‘#thankyoubabe’ and what not. She misses the actual spectacle because she was too busy recording it.

Case study two

His favorite band is coming to town in two weeks. He has bought tickets and invited his friends. He even happens to know a few people who are working backstage that day so everything is working out for him.

On the day of the show, the grounds are packed. He wasn’t the only one with a VIP ticket so his view is not really the best. Immediately the band gets on stage, he gets out his phone and starts recording. Considering where he stands and the fact that he is still dancing, the quality is not good. After the show he runs backstage where he is let in by his ‘contact’. He gets two or three pictures with his favorite band and goes home.

The next morning the posting starts. #takemeback takes over. The likes and envious comments he gets makes it all worth it (at least I think it does). Looking back he actually missed the show just so that people would know he was there.

Don’t get me wrong. If Beyonce ever decided to grace our country with her presence I would totally get that Mshwari loan. Thing is, I would be too busy enjoying the show, dancing who run the world routine to care if people know I’m there. I don’t trust people in huge crowds not to steal my phone so I would leave it at home. The pictures people would see of me would be taken by others not me.

The point I am trying to make here is we are closing our eyes and falling asleep. Life is passing by most of us because we are too busy recording it. A parent dies and all you have of them are selfies you took on mothers’ day or fathers’ day. You never actually spent time with them. It is good to have memories and photos do help us reserve a moment but moderation is key. Enjoy life. Once in a while put that camera down and get your feet in mud. Cameras were made to bring your world to people who are not there with you, agreed. Most of the times though, no one cares about what you are having for lunch. People have lives to live and while you are busy documenting yours, they are living theirs. Imagine at your funeral, a slideshow of all the selfies you took, all he faking it till you made it, being used as your eulogy. Did you actually live that life?You are too concerned with being swept off your feet and being picture perfect but don’t really care about the one doing the sweeping. If asked what your favorite moment about the concert was, you’d know nothing. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot do two things at once. You are either living life or documenting it. Modern technology is not all bad. One word – moderation.