Paige Spiranac With A Scorching Hot Post Yesterday Following The Masters

Unless you've been under a rock, you know what happened yesterday at the Masters and you know who Paige Spiranic is so you might have seen this take from her following Rory's historic win. Guess what, she isn't wrong. 

Don't get me wrong, we are all in Steve Jobs' debt for giving us a calculator in our hands so we could stick it to our teachers who always told us we needed to learn math because we won't walk around with a calculator in our pockets. Phones make the world go round. They are incredible tools when you think about the capabilities we have at our fingertips but since I am of the Second Greatest Generation (born in the 80s, raised in the 90s), I can both navigate them deftly while remembering a world before them. 

I am not going to litigate if it was better or worse before phones, but what I am going to agree with is that events are better when you are simply living in the moment instead of trying to capture the best picture for likes on IG. 

I have stood on this take before...

My concert crew actually has a rule that we adhere to in our group - one picture to commemorate the concert and that's it. Anything more and you get shamed (shout to Mo and Cousin Pat).

Sports and concerts need people enjoying the moment so you can realize how special it is while you're there, not trying to capture the perfect picture or video. My pal Kelly talked about this today in her blog on Coachella:

I've never been to Coachella but I am here to tell you that Kelly is right, it does suck. People would rather "flex" that they are there than enjoy the music. This has seeped into all aspects of our society. No one wants to enjoy their eggs benny anymore, they want to post a pic on IG that they are at brunch. No one wants to fly private, they want to post that they are flying private. On and on down the line of examples. 

I won't go as far as Paige and say the word "ban" because people need their phones for life now but I also don't hate it either. We've become so reliant on phones that our brains are dumber. That's not my old man opinion, it's a fact. Spare me the argument that you need your phone to take pictures at an event. No one in the history of sports has taken a good in-game picture with their phone and I PROMISE you that no one wants to watch the 25 IG story posts of the concert you were at last night because the view is horrible and audio doesn't do it justice. 

Look at this photo that circulated a few years back from Lebron breaking the scoring record compared to MJ's shot against SLC.

You know what would be 1000000x cooler than having the crummy iPhone pic from your seat that night? A framed picture from the professional photographer hanging in your office that you can point to and tell your kid, "Look, there I was."

To Paige's point, there are tons of professional photos taken at Augusta to commemorate your trip there. Would you rather have one of those to go along with your memories of seeing Rory's final putt drop or would you have preferred watching it through a 6in screen? You know the right answer. 

Listen at the end of the day, nothing is impressive about attending events. I was at the Super Bowl when Prince sang Purple Rain in the rain and when that's come up in conversation no one has ever been impressed. They say "oh wow cool" to be polite but they don't care. At all. I know that. You just read that sentence and I promise your life didn't change one bit. You know what was cool though? Having that memory because I was locked in on his performance that night. 

I implore you to leave your phone in your pocket the next time you're at a game or concert. You'll probably enjoy it more and remember more of it actually. If not, I guess me and Abe will be over here enjoying the show.