This week, I attended a concert at House of Blues and loved it. It wasn’t my first time at the House of Blues nor was it my first time seeing this band.

The new element that made this experience unique was the sheer number of people recording the concert on their smart phones.

It stunned me that people would pay money to go see a live performance of one of their favorite bands only to watch the show through the lens of a tiny phone screen.

At one point, both members of both of the couples in front of me were recording the show in this way.

I’m not really sure what the point behind that was, but clearly the ridiculousness of it escaped them.

They carried on for several songs-arms held up awkwardly in front of them, eyes glued to pixels.

If you feel like you’re missing out, I guarantee you that someone has recorded a live version of every song that was played by that band and posted it online for your viewing pleasure.

I definitely enjoyed the concert, but I’d be lying if I said that the hundreds of bright LCD rectangles being held in the air weren’t distracting.

The opening band was apparently annoyed by it too, because they gave everyone a specific time to take a hilariously posed “perfect concert pic for Twitter.” That satiated some of the fans, but even after that, many couldn’t resist filming the rest of the show.

I would love to know how many people actually watch those videos ever again.

Despite being an engineer, I am not a huge fan of the current pervasive state of technology. I hate having my phone with me all the time. I don’t feel the need to be instantly connected to everyone. I rarely take photos on my phone and don’t know that I’ve ever recorded a video.

My experience at the concert seems to be indicative of a broader trend. People feel the need to catalogue and record every detail of their lives.

People spend so much time and effort recording everything that they do that they forget to simply do things in the first place.

The first thought after doing something fun or unique is never

“Wow! That was awesome!” but rather “I need to post this photo of me on Facebook.”

As Ferris Bueller famously said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Spend more time enjoying and experiencing life. If you can’t relive every exciting moment later through a phone screen replay, it will be okay. I promise.

Ray is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].