Snap it up

Went strolling on the boardwalk a few weeks ago to see the Winter Stations art installations that were built around the lifeguard stations along Balmy and Kew and Ashbridges Bay beaches. They were quirky and imaginative and fun to explore. In front of each station a sign was posted, explaining which team had created the installation and what they were trying to convey. There were lots of kids around, and they were having a ball, playing with the components, crawling around inside, climbing to the top. Here's what the adults did: they whipped out their smartphones, took a picture of the sign, took some pictures of the installation, then moved on to the next one.

To people in my generation, that is just plain nuts. Why would you want to trade a real experience for a virtual one? Even assuming that those people will ever bother to look at their pictures, think of what they're missing: the brisk winter wind turning the installation around in slow stately circles, the children's laughter, the feeling of sand giving way under your shoes, the air of celebration as we emerge from our lairs at winter's end. If you really want to remember something, first you have to pay attention to it. If you didn't pay attention because you were busy fiddling with your smartphone, then you don't have much to remember. But people like me, way out on the far reaches of the smartphone divide, are just whistling in the wind. Younger people can't imagine life without a smartphone; it's their memory, lifeline, and archive. So maybe everything that happens to them has to get into that smartphone and off to social media before it seems real.