Put your phone down
Yesterday, my husband and I treated ourselves to an evening at the spa. It was a nice spa, clean and spacious, not too busy. But what was supposed to be a relaxing and rejuvenating experience soon turned into an incredibly stressful and surreal one, because most of the other spa attendees spent the majority of their time with their phones in their hands: filming.
What started off as a few selfies next to the opulent spa decor quickly descended into these eager content creators filming almost every single moment they were experiencing, editing the images and videos as they were taken, right from in the pool, comparing shots and angles. My husband and I spent most of our time in the spa either moving to different spaces to put ourselves out of the way, or having to dodge the line of sight of the tens of active phone cameras, lest we be thrust onto the internet in our swimsuits. When the other guests weren't filming, they were scrolling their phones from the pool as if they were on their couches at home, most probably watching for the likes to roll in on the TikToks and Instagram reels they posted just minutes earlier.
In the past, I've been to spas that operate a strict no-phone policy to protect the privacy and experience of its paying guests. So why was it different at this spa? My only guess is that they're profiting from free internet promotion by its patrons at the expense of the overall experience. We did the British thing and sent a strongly worded email when we got home.
Looking around at the sea of phones in what was supposed to be an escape away from the hustle and bustle of real life, work, bills, and responsibilities, I felt sad. Not just because the risk of appearing in someone's internet "content" in my swimsuit without consent is an invasion of privacy, but that these people weren't truly experiencing what was intended to be experienced. They weren't truly present; they were somewhere on the internet, doing labour for likes.
Is this how we're living our lives now?
Put your phone down.
