It can be hard to strike a balance between documenting a moment and fully experiencing that moment without camera in hand. I probably take less photos and videos these days than what I used to. Often when I step back and think about this, I remember an experience I had a few years back during a short stint living in Bucharest.
I'd gone to visit an authentic historical village and while I was there I watched a show where some people were performing a traditional Romanian dance, during which a man seated in front of me videoed the entire thing on his smartphone for a whopping 14 minutes (I timed it).
I found myself wondering what he planned to do with 14 minutes of footage of a traditional Romanian dance. Perhaps he would be subjecting his poor friends and family to a travel movie night, with all of them huddled around the TV. 'It really ramps up around the 9 minute mark' he'd announce to everyone, most of whom had probably either fallen into a deep coma or were secretly wishing for a drone strike to arrive at any moment.
That’s not to say anything negative about the performance itself, which was really enjoyable. I just suspect that the maximum enjoyment to be gained from the moment was in experiencing it then and there, and that it's possible he didn't need a full 14 minutes worth to watch at a later date.
The irony of all this is that he probably watched more of the show than I did, as I spent a lot of the time just watching the man and his smartphone.
(See photographic evidence below).