That video you just watched took me about ten minutes to throw together, on my phone, including choosing music and which clips to use.
The short clips were a deliberate choice. My plan was to film snippets from our trip to Mexico, then put the damn phone away and enjoy my vacation. This is precisely why I will never be an influencer who turns travel into a job. When I go on vacation, I don’t want to think about work. I don’t want to consider how every shot I capture can help build my business. I want to enjoy myself, relax, take in the new surroundings, have someone else do the cooking and cleaning. Wherever I go, I want full immersion.
I want my full focus to be on recharging as I float the lazy river, or on the entertainment, or on nothing at all. Everywhere I go, though, the smartphone is a buzzkill.
Evidence: the Fire Show at our resort. At the first drum beat, I settled in my seat - clustered with 5 others - to watch the evening’s show. A lady stepped in front of us, phone up in the air, completely unaware that she was blocking our view. We collectively held our breath, waiting. Surely she was just going to take picture or a short clip and then move.
Once the show started, she didn’t move. One of the gentlemen seated among us, rose, tapped her on the shoulder, and indicated that she was blocking us. She turned her head, glancing at us over her shoulder, irritation written all over her face. She side-stepped, and we had our view back.
Within five minutes, she had moved back in front of us, phone still raised above her eye line, capturing the show. Again, our seat mate rose, tapping her on the shoulder. The music was loud enough to drown out her words, but her face spoke loud enough. Surely we weren’t going to interfere with her recording.
For the rest of the show, my attention was divided between the woman and the performers. All I wanted was to watch some flame throwers and fire eaters, sip my mai tai, and savour the evening. But this lady with the phone fucked it all up.
Later that night, it occurred to me how insane we have become with recording every single thing. We pull ourselves out of the experience of just being, by focussing on having a digital record of where we were and what was going on. Entertainment has shifted from experiencing to documenting.
I am asking you kindly to put the phone down. Enjoy the show. Let the people around you immerse themselves in what is happening on the stage. Concentrate on the music flowing through your body, not on framing your shot. That little device is powerful and puts distance between you and your opportunity to embed a memory. I can promise you that watching that clip later (if you even do), will be nothing compared to the sensory memories.
I still remember my first concert in 1985. Cyndi Lauper. I can recall the sting of the first very loud chords in my ears and the hum after. The heat of teenagers all around me and my scalp sweating as I stood and danced for almost three hours. From where we sat, Cyndi was a speck, but she takes up a lot of space in my brain, way more than a 6-inch screen.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t use our phones at all. They enable us to take great photos and capture brilliant video. I am thrilled with my short video and the ability to condense eleven days of vacation into a minute and a half. I can briefly relive those moments when I watch, but the emotions tied to every clip run deep, and I have that because I was able to put the phone away.
What I’m reading
I’m on a bit of a non-fiction kick. Last week I read devoured They Said This Would Be Fun in two days. It’s a hard look at race and racism on a university campus. The narrative was easy to fall into; the content was harder to swallow . This week, I’m deep into Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal. I’m a bit late to the Before part, but the timing is perfect for the after.
Can we please put down the phone?