Chances are you’re reading this on a smartphone. If you’re at work; fair enough. Same goes for your living room.
These aren’t ‘the problem’.
The real ‘social media’ travesty is travellers’ tendency not to miss life’s most majestic moments (as the stereotype goes), but to fail to enjoy them; instead capturing them for others to covet and judge, also from behind a screen.
Welcome to 2019.
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It’s been a while coming, with tourists being banned from taking photos in various locations around the world. And while in the cases of Mai Khao beach and Iceland’s Fjadrargljufur canyon it was more a matter of physical safety, an iconic Air France photo of The Concorde reveals why travellers should also put their phones down in the interest of their mental well-being.
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“In 1989, an Air France Concorde made a very special flight to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten/St. Martin. It would be the only time Concorde landed at Princess Juliana International Airport on St. Maarten, but the airport itself hasn’t forgotten. This photo is still on display, just after security, in the terminal at SXM,” MegaAviation recently wrote on Instagram.
“Note how almost no one on that beach is holding up a camera to capture the moment, save for possibly the lady and man at far right.”
“These days on Maho Beach, where this photo was shot, even the daily arrival of 757s draw a snap-happy crowd. And let’s not forget to mention the few days the KLM 747 flew in from Amsterdam; you’ll be elbow-to-elbow with a thousand people, their DSLRs at the ready, for that earth-rumbling arrival.”
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Although one might argue that technology is more to blame than people (I’m sure those with ‘summer’ bods would have loved to make a living posing in infinity pools back then too), placing the blame here or there doesn’t make the problem go away.
So instead of getting all self-righteous next time your partner takes a selfie on the beach, maybe just ‘accidentally’ drop their phone in the water…