This month, many students went to a music festival in Atlanta called Music Midtown. I know you saw this, with the number of pictures and videos posted, proving that they went. You were able to see Post Malone just as clearly as your friend who was there.

You saw their staged pictures, laughing and dancing around like clowns with glitter-covered faces. Scrolling through my social media feed, it hit me how absurd it was that there were so many pictures taken at one event. Did they even enjoy the concert or did they spend the whole day taking pictures?

We take too many pictures. We spend half of our time proving that we were at an event. We spend hours finding the perfect angle of ourselves and editing the picture to the point that it is unrealistic. Our followers have to see how cute we are, right? We have to prove that our life is so fun, so artsy, so perfect.

Last game day, I admit I spent as much time taking pictures as I did actually watching the game. We are so wrapped up in proving how much fun we’re having that we forget to actually have fun. I giggled and looked at my friends as if they had cracked some hysterical joke. I smiled until my cheekbones actually hurt. Yet, I know for sure I am not the only one. We are all guilty of it.

Game day is just one example. Think of the last time you went somewhere and left your phone sitting on a table, instead of keeping it by your side to snap a selfie every 10 seconds. Think about the last time you did not go chase that perfect lighting, but sat and enjoyed the company of the people around you. Or maybe even the last concert you went to and watched it with your very own eyes, rather than through a video you were taking for Snapchat.

We should watch the game and pay attention to the concert. We should actually watch the sunset, rather than snapping a quick pic of it. A photo on a screen, or even a video, can only capture so much. Those things, while beneficial in capturing memories, are nothing in comparison to remembering the experience itself.

Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University, said, “We have this expectation that the camera is going to remember things for us, so we don’t have to continue processing that object and we don’t engage in the types of things that would help us remember it.”

We are so infatuated with proving our experiences to others we often miss out on them ourselves. While attempting to capture our memories on our phones, we fail to capture them ourselves. I want to remember the sunset in all of its glory, not just look at a picture that doesn’t do it justice. I want to hear the ebb of the music and feel the pulsating of the crowd, not listen to it on a video later on.

So stop taking pictures and stop videoing those concerts. Put the phone down—I promise the experience will be worth it.