Can We Truly Seize the Moment From Behind a Lens?

When One Direction recently sang their hearts out at Manchester City Stadium; photos of the concert filled the social media streams – videos were uploaded on YouTube, selfies were put on Facebook and #onedirection filled the Twitter-sphere.

But there is something vastly wrong with this concept. Are we just viewing life through a lens and missing out on the real experience?

Why don’t we use our memories of actually being there anymore – experiencing the ace lights and cool smoke machines for real instead of wasting the moment to record the action for posterity?

Being in the same room as our idols and witnessing something exclusive is one of those memories we should be treasuring right now, as it happens.

Should we limit our experience of it to a moment captured in an image? Are we slowly losing the willingness to see things through our own eyes and relying on lenses to view life?

I understand the value of photographic memories. But are we spending more time looking at the screen of the camera or iPhone than experiencing the concert or ‘live’ event that we’ve spent all our money and months saving up for?

I recently visited New York and went to the top of the Rockefeller centre. As the sun set over the Manhattan skyline, the best views were obstructed by people with cameras or pointing smartphones at the scene. No-one was admiring the sunset in real time. They were too busy making sure their Facebook photo stream wasn’t missing a trick.

Has it got to the stage where people are missing the unrivalled thrill of those once-in-a-lifetime ‘live’ moments in a desperate bid to make sure that moment is not once-in-a-lifetime? Is the trade-off, experiencing life through the limited view of a camera lens, worth it?

Maybe. But maybe not.

Australian Pop-punk band Five Seconds of Summer quite clearly believe the latter. They recently asked their fans to put down all their cameras and phones at one of their gigs – just so they could enjoy the music and live the moment; the melodies, the flashing lights.

How on earth can we seize the moment when we’re hiding behind the camera eye?

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