It took me 45 minutes and a point-to-point description of events to convince this person that I was ACTUALLY at the concert. The only difference between him and I was that his pictures from the concert were splashed all over Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, not to forget the oh-so-necessary live updates on Snapchat, while I didn’t even bother to check-in! 

That’s when it struck me. 

Basically, we are obsessed with capturing the moments that are worth living instead of actually living them!

You have paid five grands for a concert ticket. You’re stuck somewhere in a crowd of thousands. You’ve waited out a huge line-up of artists who are trying their level best to keep you interested. People are walking over your feet and sweaty bodies are rubbing against yours and no, not in the way you’d want them to. And finally, the show begins.

But you miss the band’s grand entry because you were too busy unlocking your phone. Then, when they start singing, you stand there with your arms stretched out and a phone in your hands, not only blocking the view of whoever is standing behind you, but also recording a shaky video with blaring noise, which will sit in some forgotten corner of your phone’s gallery because it’s too disappointing to be uploaded on social media!

This argument made no sense to my aforementioned friend. He believed that if you’re living a once-in-a-lifetime moment, then it deserves to be captured.

Fair enough!

But what about the random food pictures from every Saturday dinner and Sunday brunches?

I remember my mom telling me, back when I was a kid, to eat my food as soon as it is served on the table, otherwise the Food God (yep, she made up Gods to get me to do things) would get upset and I’d never get food in my life ever again.

While this doctored logic made sense to me back then, I came to realize (with the help of my very basic common sense) that if I wait to take a picture before eating, not only is it getting cold but also to some extent, I’m disrespecting it.

Yes, I found it mandatory to mention that food gets cold despite the obviousness involved because people still don’t seem to get it!

From sunsets to a broken Oreo in the pack to feet to even a picture of your phone, it seems like we are now creating these ‘moments’ because we have surely forgotten where to find the real ones. 

Uploading a random picture with an obscure caption, evoking happiness, pity, anger, fear or plain bullshit has seemed to become the most important activity of our days. But then that one crappy picture can get us a 100 likes and turns out that these days, this is all the validation we need. 

This need of validation feeds on our chances of being able to look at the world with our own eyes and not through a 5.5 inch screen!

Do you see yourself in him? Sure you do. Don’t lie!

Let me take you back to when there were reel cameras and we genuinely cherished the moments captured by them. 

There was no room for a hundred thousand filters or the pressure to upload the pictures anywhere. Those pictures were either extremely candid or extremely planned, and still they were perfect. We didn’t have the liberty to click incessantly and for every holiday, we got one reel with 30 slides. 

Today, we might be clicking over a 50 pictures per minute and yet, we aren’t satisfied. And not to forget, amidst these shenanigans, the moment of beauty has passed!

So the next time you really want to prove the existence of a ‘life’ in your life, make sure you live it first and then probably write a blog about it.

Sometimes, words are more powerful than pictures.