Milk Maid

When you go out in public, have you been noticing the number of people on their phones? Just say you are going out to eat with some friends or family. At the restaurant you observe other diners paying more attention to their phones than the company they are with.

Most of you will be quick to blame the younger generations like myself, but if you stop and look around, it’s not just kids. People of all ages have their eyes glued to their phones. My best friend and I attended an amazing concert in the Twin Cities this weekend and on the way there, he was telling me a story about his students.

It was their school’s homecoming last week and a group of his students were busy taking “selfies on their phones.” Then, they all immediately looked down at their phones and began rigorously posting on their different social media platforms.

He stopped for a minute, debated whether or not to say something, then decided to instill some “teacherly wisdom” on the kids. He told them, “Instead of taking and posting hundreds of photos you will never look at again, you should be living in the moment and creating homecoming memories that way.”

I thought that was interesting because in the recent weeks, we’ve had several “living in the moment” conversations. It drives him crazy to be at events like football games or concerts and average people sit and tape the whole thing instead of looking up and actually enjoying the event.

I’ve been guilty of using my phone to take a quick photo or two, but when I’m out, I try to “be present in that moment.”

It’s really annoying and inconsiderate to be out with people and they are more concerned about the people “inside their phones” instead of the ones actually in front of them.

Anyway, while at the concert, we kept commenting on all the people on their phones. I will admit, we both took a bunch of photos but did so during down times or just a few snapshots during our favorite songs.

There was a party in the row ahead of us and the one young lady, Jillian, was too busy on her phone to even pay attention to where her seat was.

Then, Jillian proceeded to tape the whole concert on her phone. There was no dancing or just plain enjoying the concert.

It wouldn’t have bothered me as much if she didn’t have her arms raised the whole time so she was an annoyance to everyone behind her.

It wouldn’t shock me if she didn’t remember a thing. My friend and I just looked at each other and said, “Really?”

I have a difficult time believing that she will ever go back and watch the whole concert again on her phone. I will admit, I did take a few videos on my phone.

But I used my “Snapchat” app so my videos were limited to 10 second intervals and I only recorded pieces of my favorite songs.

The concert was just too amazing and fun to live it through the screen of my phone. I have a few photos, videos and the printed ticket stub I received at the gate as mementos, but the real memories are ingrained into my mind.

Life is too short to store images for a later date.