Let me start off by saying that I get a lot of blog ideas by going to the beach. Here is the previous one. It was about my fiancée wanting me to stop trying to get a picture for Instagram and just enjoy the sunny, breezy day we had at the beach. Well here I am again talking about this. But what’s so thought provoking about being around people all trying to enjoy themselves on the warm sand and in the cool waters? That’s exactly it.
Being in a setting like that makes for a special occasion where you get to escape the real world for a few hours. A “day at the beach” is an exciting event where you get to relax and enjoy the moment, and yet that’s not enough for our society today. It’s not enough to just embrace special moments like these and soak in the sunlight and just… be. My fiancée wanted to take a break from sun tanning and sit up to snap a few pictures to post to Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc. Now I will say, she also did truly want pictures of us on her phone but also for social media purposes as well. I, too, wanted to take some panorama pictures of the beautiful, blue sky and lake to share with the (online) world.
It’s in those moments that I thought about life. I’m odd, I know it. We’re so busy during these special moments, that we forget they’re special. Why must we document what’s going on? Is it not enough for us to just “remember those times when…?” Is that not part of what makes us who we are as people? We remember and hold onto key moments in our lives so we can think back to them and realize life is precious, and special, and memorable. Society is so busy documenting personal moments for everyone else to see that we forget to be in the moment ourselves. You no longer need to tell stories about what amazing experiences you’ve been having recently because “oh yea, I saw you post that on Facebook.”
Yes, yes I did post it on Facebook, but you’ll never understand what it felt like during those times. And if we keep staying stuck in our phones documenting these moments for everyone else we may not understand what it feels like either. Feelings can’t be shared with others online, so be sure to feel those emotions while laying on the beach with the one you love, instead of attempting to let everyone else know what it’s like.