Are we forgetting to live in the moment?

The many platforms of digital media have enabled us to share every moment of our lives with our family, friends and acquaintances. Many a times, we are caught up in wanting to let someone else experience our lives and let them be in the know of who we’re hanging out with, what we’re doing, what we’re eating, where we are etc.

I too, am guilty of that. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat has made it so easy to just share a simple snap (pun unintended) with the people we know.

However, this has unknowingly made me feel that we are no longer living in the moment. A friend of mine recently went for the U2 concert in Amsterdam and he showed me all the videos and pictures he took at the show. This made me realise that, as he was taking these pictures and videos, he was actually enjoying the show through his phone screen and not his eyes. He was missing out on living in the moment and really soaking up the atmosphere in person.

Similarly, for me, and I’m sure for most of us, when an exciting event happens, the first thing we do is whip out our cameras to get a picture or video. At the recent October 3^rd event in Leiden, I was watching the firework show and unknowingly, I realized I was just watching it through my phone recording screen – it was only halfway through that I thought to myself – what am I doing? I should be enjoying the show with my own eyes and not just be focused on recording these moments (whether or not I upload them on digital media platforms eventually). So, I stopped recording and just enjoyed the show – it was indeed more spectacular than through the five-inch screen.

I guess the point of this blog post is to urge the rest of us to live in the moment, and not prioritise showing our experiences to others, but just to enjoy these experiences first hand for ourselves.