Capture This

We all do it. Each and every one of us does this either consciously or unconsciously. Some more subtly and some more excessively. As a fellow Gen Y youth our generation is obsessed with Instagraming anything and everything from food to landscapes to selfies. If we think about it we act like our own paparazzi, obsessed with capturing every moment in our lives only to instantly upload it onto Facebook or Twitter later. It’s almost as though we are lead to believe that if we didn’t Instagram the moment then it never existed, a bit like a prosecutor  in a trail with the world as our jury if we can’t provide them with evidence then it never happened!

This is especially evident at concerts. Now if you are Indian or any shade from the fifty shades of brown then you are probably well aware of the significance that Bollywood movies play in our day to day lives.  You may also have been part of the huge hype that lead up to that amazing concert held two nights ago at the Sydney Allphones arena. I don’t know about you, but I for one have never in my 19 years of existence seen over 1500 Indians get up and dance all at once, it was almost like each and every one of them was having a mini dance off.

That being said almost 90% of the people that attended this event either looked like they were going clubbing or to a wedding, in fact I’m pretty sure a few aunties were showing off their sons as though it was an auction and I swear they sold faster than hotcakes!

Aside from all this as I sat there anxiously in anticipation (like a little Mexican jumping bean) trying to guess who’d make an appearance first I began to notice all this little lights floating in the air amongst the sea of people . At first due to my lack of vision I thought they were fireflies only to realise how stupid that thought was considering we were indoors. After squinting a bit and getting glared at by a few people I realised that these were in fact smartphones. Now I understand that we all wanted to hold onto this night and cherish every moment spent there because it’s not every day that you get one of Bollywood’s biggest film stars (Sharukh Khan) fly over to down  under. However what I didn’t understand was why people continuously recorded the concert on their limited 8Mppixelated cameras rather than properly watching the concert and really basking in the ambience of the moment as the vibe and the atmosphere hypnotised you like a charmer does to his snake.

That being said, I am also well aware of the role that technology plays in our day- to- day lives (considering I am an engineering student) but are we that engrossed with this little device that we fail to notice the events taking place around us. For example I read in an article the other day that a student was shot dead in broad daylight on the subway in San Francisco and yet nobody noticed because they were so involved in their own virtual world, that they were completely unaware of what was happening around them. This really got me thinking over the fact that we are letting technology control so much of life that someday it may get worse than a zombie apocalypse and end up killing us, after all it will be the perfect weapon because we won’t even see it coming! Ok maybe that was a bit too dramatic.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that although it is important to have a Kodak moment it won’t do you any harm if you put that flashy little device away and truly soak in the moment (a bit like SpongeBob the lil fella) so that you can capture those moments in your mind with all you senses of touch, feel and smell to create a wonderful memory that you can then add to a scrapbook called life.