I was beyond excited to attend my very first wedding. I imagined that we would have the absolute time of our lives. More than anything, I was beyond excited to talk and just sit and chat with everyone. I hadn’t seen my extended family in nearly seven years, and I thought the wedding parties could be a way to see everyone and catch up. I did get the chance to have deeper conversations in our intimate gatherings in our homes. However, I quickly found out that the wedding was not the place to catch up with everyone and have deep conversations.
The wedding was a very big moment for the bride and groom. However, for their guests, it seemed as though this was also their big moment! Most of what I had seen during the celebrations was just people aiming their phone cameras towards the bride and groom, their friends, and the beautiful decorations. For many of us, this was the first time in a while (because of COVID) that we had been able to go out and enjoy ourselves at a function like this. So I understand why so many people were pouring their hearts into taking the best selfies and pictures. After almost three years of lock down and an unsure future, people want to soak up this short lived sense of normalcy, and taking photos and videos on our phones is the main way we can stay connected to this feeling.
But could this habit of taking picture after picture be more of a curse than a blessing? While we are so busy trying to make sure we are making memories and documenting them, we seem to be missing out on experiencing life in the then and there and instead living these momentous occasions through our phone screens. It seems like FOMO (fear of missing out) can occur even when you’re physically present at an event. We lost so many of our regular social gatherings during COVID. And now that we do have the chance to gather, there is a pressure to make the most of it and remember all of these good things because our future is so uncertain.
Many of us will agree that it will be a great joy to be able to look back at these pictures and videos months, or even years, later and be able to smile — in a way reliving these happy moments through these recorded photos and videos.
Maybe right now there isn’t a proper way to enjoy ourselves. With everything still so up in the air, we have the choice of whether we want to completely disconnect from our devices in order to connect with the world, or connect through our phones while still connecting in person. In the end, we shouldn’t be discouraged from doing what we feel is the best way to be connected during a very disconnected time.