Am I brave enough to trash my smartphone?
A reaction to what happened in Paris on NYE this year
When did we decide that people in our social network are more important than the people next to us, or the present moment? Like many, I was horrified to see the dystopian video of people celebrating the New Year at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris a couple of days ago with their phones out. Instead of making memories and new connections in the moment, tens of thousands of people stood quietly and filmed the changing of the clock on the top of the Parisian monument with their smartphones.
Paris holds a special place in my heart, and it’s not just because of the Haussman architecture- although that’s a big part of it. It’s a place where I first saw people enjoying their lives in a new way. In 2002 when I studied abroad there, we just barely had cell phones. We paid heftily by the texto and so I messaged someone maybe 3 times a day, slowly, letter by excruciating letter on my flip phone. No one was sitting at a cafe working on their laptop. No one was Emily in Paris-ing their way through pain au chocolat, (although I am a repeat watcher of the show for its Pat McGrath fashion and Paris campiness.)
No, the reason I go to Paris, or did, at the risk of sounding too much like SATC’s Carrie in Paris, is because the locals are known for being sensual and romantic. I mean this both in the sexy use of the word and in the more literal meaning, of the senses. Parisians are known for the pleasure they take in the physical world and in using all their senses to do so. They have pastries, perfumeries, haute couture, music on every street corner, decadent architecture, and fine art galore. One example I love of this type of sensual tribute is the lore that Marie Antoinette, an icon of this type of haute Parisian existence (she had her faults), used her breast as the model for the original champagne glass.
In Paris, the body is a temple to be adorned and elevated. And you can’t enjoy your body, or the delicacies of the Parisian life- any life - if you are not present in yourself and in the moment.
Nothing takes me out of my body and the moment faster than documenting a moment for my Instagram stories. This is perhaps the crux of Emily in Paris, who is in a way all of us. How can she go through such a beautiful city and not really see it? Not really experience it? Times that by tens of thousands and you have what happened in front of the Arc de Triomphe on NYE.
But what is the solution? There are a real benefits to having a smartphone on and available at all times. As artists, we get more opportunities from having a strong social media platform and creating interesting content. You get dopamine hits from getting likes and followers. Plus I have also made real-world friends from Instagram, and have sold real physical paintings for some very real dollars.
But what about the friends I didn’t make because I didn’t other to chat someone up in person? Or the moments of inspiration for a new, better painting that I missed because I was too busy scrolling?
Perhaps there’s a moderate approach to a de-screened life that doesn’t involve me completely trashing my smartphone. I have been eyeing the Light phones that allow you to get all the minimal features of a flip phone, without looking like you are on the run from the Feds. Maybe I could alternate it with my smartphone a few days a week?
Whatever the case, I feel like we have reached a tipping point in this dystopian nightmare of the internet and it’s time to back up. I want to meet people in person, and experience things with my whole self, for myself, and perhaps an anecdote that I tell someone later at a sidewalk cafe while sipping a tiny café au crème.
Please don’t follow my Instagram stories and at me if it seems like I have strayed off course. Like any addiction recovery, I think it might require a multi-step process.