This Christmas, I’m issuing a challenge for you all: Spend more time enjoying the special moments, and less time documenting them. It seems that lately nothing can be done until we’ve Instagrammed every last present, filmed our Midnight Mass service, live-tweeted our way through “It’s A Wonderful Life,” or put everything on Facebook. It’s great to be in touch with the world, but all that time you’re spending on social media is time taken away from your family.
You deserve to see the world through your eyes, not behind an iPhone. Sometimes I feel that people get so caught up in capturing something on film that it doesn’t even occur to them to take a moment and soak it all in and just experience it. Life is something to be experienced, not recorded and played back.
Turn off your phone while you’re opening presents and sitting down to dinner. Be in the moment. Obviously, taking family photos is expected, but don’t spend too much time going through your Instagram feed. That can wait. Engage with the loved ones around you. Pay attention to them, not to your phone.
Think you can do it?