Recent events, where large crowds gather, must have gladdened the hearts of the executives of Samsung, Apple and Huawei, as these events have, largely, been seen through the lenses of their products.
What is it about the modern human that they attend, often at great expense financially and time wise, and spend all their time ensuring they have the event in focus and in shot?
Last week I went to Castlerigg Stone Circle, one of my most favourite places in the world, let alone the Lake District, and my mobile phone stayed in my pocket. I felt the warmth of the early autumn sun on my face while, at the same time, feeling the now cooler breeze scudding the cotton wool like clouds across the sky.
I touched the stones and wondered at what intelligence brought them here and arranged them in this pattern on a lonely Lakeland fell top. I looked in wonder at the never changing view south and the central fells.
Of course, one of my suggestions to any visitor is to occasionally look back where, here, we can gaze on Blencathra, Latrigg and Skiddaw. Bliss.
When I get home and I reflect on the day, I can close my eyes and all those things that assaulted my senses can be recalled. I don’t need a computer image on a screen and, if I did, would that two-dimensional image capture the warmth of my face, or the cool breeze, of the scudding clouds?
Yes, I do have photographs on my walls but most, if not all, were ‘considered’ photos – with a parsimony built on a film camera where you had, at most, 36 shots on any roll and developing and printing was not cheap. I looked at the scene, probably from many different angles before deciding on the shot I want.
OK, that means I might miss capturing on the camera something that happens in a split second, but such is life. At least I have the memory of it imprinted in my mind.
The digital age might provide us with access to immediacy – we can take the shot and post it to family and friends on social media is a heartbeat. “Look where I am.” “Look at what I am having to eat.” “Look, a selfie with some C list celebrity’”.
But this ‘immediacy’ and the sharing of absolutely everything with everybody, takes away the personal and the private. It strikes at the very heart of what being human is.
We are individuals and what we think, what is important to us, how we feel is intensely private and shared only with the nearest and dearest, not experienced through the lens of a smartphone camera and shared with the world and its sibling
Yes, take the photo or the video, but take more time to actually assail your senses with the real world around you.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from 2023, will be back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.
