in our era of technology, we spend thousands of dollars on tickets to shows and events and we wish to record all of it, the whole setlist from beginning to end, every food eaten at the street market, every word spoken in the theatre. and sure, we’re recording the event, but really, we’re trying to record our feelings—when you video your favorite song from your favorite artist’s concert, you’re trying to record how it felt, how it felt to be around screaming fans when the beat drops. and it makes sense—it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all, and you want to remember it.
but in the end, i choose to experience it before i record it, and i’d rather my only recollections be my blurry, faded memory, than focusing on a video so hard you don’t feel the emotions you’re trying to record. because in the end, there are a million videos of that concert, but you are only going to get to see it once.
sometimes, we focus on recording so hard, we don’t realize what we’re recording. because one day, you’re going to pick up your phone, hit ‘play’, and wonder why the crowd is so quiet, and why your video is just a video of a video of a video of the stage. if an event is just a thousand people trying to record it, there’s no reason to be there at all, and you’ve lost what you’re trying to preserve by brushing the dust off with a bit too much force.
so put the phone down. don’t hit record. let’s live this life before we start recording it. let’s feel the emotions we’re trying to preserve. let’s live our lives outside of a video.
