Are We Living Through Our Screens?
Did you know I went to Disney World Florida? You didn’t?
Well follow me on Instagram then for goodness sakes.
But yeah, I went to Disney World and had an incredible time and it was probably the best thing I could have had at that time. I’ve got my photo diary post up already, but for now I want to focus on something I realised when I was over there.
So it’s only natural that when you go to somewhere like
Disney World you want to take a lot of photos. For me, I went when I was 10 and
we were lucky enough to go again now because Jack is young, and you know that’s
when the magic is real. Thanks Jack. But for me, probably the next time I go
(and I will be back) will probably be when I have a family of my own. (Gosh,
that made me feel a bit sick)
So of course I wanted to take a lot of photos and try to
treasure the time as much as I can. For me, looking back on photos makes me
feel like I’m actually there again, triggers those happy old feelings in my
belly and gets rid of them sad ones I often feel.
Deep.
But something kind of hit me, and it hit me big whilst we
were watching the fireworks at Magic Kingdom.
Everybody knows how magical the fireworks at Disney World are. Even if you haven’t been, I’m certain you would have heard about them – and they’re even better than you could imagine. But as I stood in a sea of thousands of people, on tip toes trying to see the castle – all I could see on the ground was a constant light of phones.
Don’t get me wrong, of course I took a few pictures. But I’m probably never going to see that firework display again, so I wanted to soak in and see every possible second of it. But there were people in front of me who literally recorded the whole thing on their phones. People had their selfie sticks so high they were blocking the view of kids and people were only watching the display through their phones.
Am I the only one who finds this weird?
When are you going to watch this video of fireworks again? Are you ever actually going to sit down and watch the 45 minute display? No. I bet you’re not.
Everybody knows how magical the fireworks at Disney World are. Even if you haven’t been, I’m certain you would have heard about them – and they’re even better than you could imagine. But as I stood in a sea of thousands of people, on tip toes trying to see the castle – all I could see on the ground was a constant light of phones.
Don’t get me wrong, of course I took a few pictures. But I’m probably never going to see that firework display again, so I wanted to soak in and see every possible second of it. But there were people in front of me who literally recorded the whole thing on their phones. People had their selfie sticks so high they were blocking the view of kids and people were only watching the display through their phones.
Am I the only one who finds this weird?
When are you going to watch this video of fireworks again? Are you ever actually going to sit down and watch the 45 minute display? No. I bet you’re not.
And it’s not even just the fireworks, or just the Disney World thing. Since I’ve come back, and when I was out there, I always thought about whether I would rather have 1000 pictures and not actually see what was going on, or just a couple of pics and actually enjoy whatever it is. I’m always conscious of spending all my time with Jack taking silly videos and stupid Snapchat filter selfies, which is great fun for both of us, but then I look back and wish I had spent time away from screens. It’s a scary (and kind of upsetting thing for me) to realise how dependent as a generation we are on our screens. I just feel like a lot of the time people forget that there is actually a real world outside of your phone, and that there are some things you can’t capture through the camera lens.
I don't really know what this post has accomplished - but it felt kinda good to upheave it all.
1 comments
Ah man I so get this! We recorded whole sets when we were in Reading fest wanting to capture all of it and I've never watched it back - yet I have a million memories of the things I saw with my own eyes, not through my camera. V much have the feels for this
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