I am very much a “live in the moment” guy.
When at a game, gig or event my phone stays in my pocket. I rarely take pictures. Never take videos.
I will never understand those that sit their recording a penalty, a corner kick or their favourite band playing their favourite song.
The argument is they want to “relive the moment” but I do that through my memory. Through sitting in the pub years down the line talking about the event with mates who were there. Living a shared experience.
On a basic level, the quality of your recording will be poor anyway, so what are you actually watching?
Say it is your favourite band. It will be a dark venue with bright lights that will mean you can barely see the stage through the camera.
If it is football, just record off Match of the Day. Their recordings will be much better than your own.
Recording the action takes away from your ability to live in the moment. You will be distracter. Trying to get your phone out.
I looked aghast on Saturday when Cristiano Ronaldo scored his goal. Every single person had a phone or a camera out instead of celebrating with whoever was round them.
Unfortunately recording events is part of modern society.
Life is all about RT’s, Likes and Followers, and what better way to get that online attention you crave than putting content up online.
Of course, some will say blogging is attention seeking. And it is. But I blog on the way to work, on my breaks. Not during the games.
It is more important these days to tell people you are at a game, gig or event rather than actually being there.
“Look at me I am at the football” they scream to everyone on social media in the hope of hitting treble figures on Likes.
There was a video floating around of some middle aged man going to their first game.
He had had a mate recording him whilst he also recorded the pitch and he was screaming like a 6 year old.
It was all very odd. Cringey. Staged.
The fella was clearly putting on a performance for the cameras in the hope he would go viral. And he got his wish as his video was picked up by Arsenal’s official twitter. He got his 5 minutes of fame.
And that sums it up.
Instead of being in the moment, enjoying it with those around you, people seem to have a need these days to record everything,
It is not just events this happens too but incidents as well.
A quick scroll through Twitter shows videos of people having fights, getting in accidents or worse.
Instead of trying to break up the incident, to help, you see people with their camera out recording. Hoping for that 5 minutes of fame.
We just live in a very shallow society these days where for many people, how many likes, RTs or followers they have is the most important thing.
To me, the most important things will always be family and friends.
I go to games with me mates, celebrate with them, get pissed with them, then go home.
We take the odd picture in the pub of ourselves as a group, but that is all. We are living in the moment. We do not need to share our experience with strangers on the internet as we are sharing the experience with each other.
I will never understand people that pay hundreds of pounds to fly across the pond , on hotels and match tickets, to then watch game through their mobile phone.
Put it in your pocket. Enjoy the game. Live in the moment.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 