Yesterday, there was a plane crash in Toronto, Canada and when people were evacuating the plane, they were filming themselves and the wreckage. The flight attendants had to to tell them to stop. How crazy is that?
It really speaks to how ingrained this instinct to document everything has become. Instead of prioritizing their own safety (or even thinking about helping others), people are pulling out their phones as if they’re detached spectators in their own emergency.
This isn’t even a new phenomenon. We’ve seen it in concerts, natural disasters, and even violent incidents—people choosing to film instead of reacting like humans in the moment. It makes you wonder: Is it the need to prove we were there? The dopamine hit of engagement? A lack of situational awareness?
The fact that flight attendants had to tell people to stop filming and evacuate faster is such a tragic commentary on where we are as a culture. What happened to basic survival instincts? And more importantly, how do we start rewiring ourselves not to instinctively reach for a screen in moments that demand our full, undivided attention?
I’d love to hear what you guys think. Why do people feel compelled to film everything now, even in situations like this?
Start by replacing a traditional smartphone with a cellphone that can NOT shoot video – such as one of the Sunbeam Wireless F1 flip-phones, which I use now, or the new Mudita Kompakt, which I ordered to replace it!
For those who are old enough to remember how expensive it was to record with film and a relatively bulky movie camera, it can be exciting to be able to record without that expense and with a small device that is already in one’s pocket.
For those who are not old enough to have learned the importance of community, the ability to video-record anything at any time can reinforce the feeling that one is the sole master of one’s destiny.
…with the delusional belief that strangers – viewers whom we will never meet – will care about OUR reaction to an event, as if our reaction is more significant than anyone else’s reaction.
My advice: Share your immediate or near-immediate reactions with friends and relatives – the people closest to you. THEY are the ones who should care about what you thought and felt about an event such as a plane crash. Later, when you have the perspective granted by time and only if you still believe that you have something significant to share, then consider writing or recording your thoughts to share with the world.
The significant are rarely famous, and the famous are rarely significant.
The human instinct in the past was survival; now it is engagement.
Aside from the bad scenario of the accident, the evacuation was safe under the circumstances. But what if it hadn’t been? That gentleman, prioritizing recording the event, is delaying the evacuation and putting the other passengers at risk.
I heard recently that the urge to record everything is now ruining the experience of watching in person the dropping of the New Year’s Eve ball in New York City.
Ball-drop watchers formerly could easily see the drop. Now many complain that other watchers’ smartphones in video-record mode block their view!
Smartphones have made it so easy to record everything, it’s like why not? IMO It’s become a habit so engrained like checking the weather app-- people just don’t think about it. Social media platforms make it easy to share… if there was no potential audience perhaps there wouldn’t be an urge to record as much.
I do wonder about this phenomenon sometimes (when I am not guilty of it myself).
Honestly I have never understood the constant documenting and recording everything, and the funny thing most people will never sit down and watch everything they have recorded , so what is the point? Just be in the moment, if you are in the moment you will never forget these memories, when I am out with my kids I with a dumb phone I am fully present and 30 years from now when I look back all those memories will still be with me in my mind
This is such a valid point. I’m working on an article right now about what smartphone photography & recording is doing to our memories. I’m going through some seriously interesting studies. FUN FACT: Relying on smartphones for memory storage can lead to weaker personal recollections, similar to how we no longer memorize phone numbers. YIKES!
To be honest, I’m glad that someone makes such videos. There is little opportunity to watch reactions of people right after such an extreme event.
Maybe the worrisome part of these recording reactions is how people are supposed to talk with each other after getting into a situation. That’s what I’d consider a healthy reaction. When they skip the people around them and talk straight to a camera instead, that’s either professionalism or a conditioned behavior. .
I’m sure the other passengers behaved in a more expected manner.
I noticed that I look through the pictures on my phone when I’m left without an internet connection.
Also I just moved into a new apartment and I don’t have an internet connection yet, so sometimes I sit down and look at the photos on my hard drive.
Already found some good ones and will want to share them with friends and family, either sitting down together or giving them some prints.
Really? Do you do it cuz you want to REALLY look at them, or is it because you’re used to scrolling, but now you’re on a flight with no internet & you didn’t bring a book.
Yeah honestly I tell my wife this all the time, she documents things all the time, and I tell her when are we ever going to have the time to sit back and watch all of this especially when we are old lol. I can honestly saying being smartphone free almost 5 years now, I have all the precious memories with my kids in my mind, where I can replay them whenever I want
@kirkmahoneyphd I agree. And to add onto your comment, I wouldn’t mind if the camera were gone, too. If I really want to take a photo- I can buy a camera. When our phones do everything we have no reason to put them down. I wish technology would go back to being the best at one thing rather than mediocre at 100 things. At least with the Mudita we are getting something with one focused goal. It’s a nice breath of fresh air.
Yeah I honestly am very happy about this as well, video to me does take you out of the moment, If I am at a concert I use to watch the concert through the phone which is just silly I really hope they never add video abilities
