I love ‘slow tv’; youtube videos of train rides, or walks, or narrowboats on a canal. I often put these videos on a split screen while I’m writing, as a quiet companion. I love the peaceful view and the ambient noises – I find it very soothing.

Recently, I was watching a video of a gondola ride in Venice, a city I absolutely adored. In between sentences, or maybe between each phrase, I’d look up to see which Venetian canal we were currently on. Occasionally I’d recognize a landmark or two.

At one point, there was a larger boat passing by, and many of the occupants had their arms raised. I had this crazy thought. I wonder who they are all waving at.

For a brief moment, I had forgotten that I no longer live in the 90s. This video wasn’t shot in the last century.

Nobody waves at anyone anymore.

But everyone has to have their cell phone out, and everyone has to get their own video of every damn thing that happens! What was I thinking!?!

Before I slip into complete curmudgeonly-ness, I do want to say that I travel with someone who goes absolutely nowhere without his camera, sometimes two, attached to his body, and he sees the world through a camera lens. I respect that.

I, on the other hand, travel with only a cell phone, and I’ve discovered there is an exact inverse correlation between the number of pictures I take and the level of immersion I’m experiencing at any particular travel site. I forget to take pictures because I’m so taken with what I’m seeing which results in a pretty underwhelming camera roll in the end. To each his own.

So to all those tourists on that Venice tour that somehow managed to be streamed to my desktop on that day I say: I hope you were at the front, because my experience with holding my phone up with all the other people holding their phones up is that most of my video is actually of the screens of everyone else’s phone. But you be you.