But first, please don't take a #Selfie

On sublime experience and being versus experience

Can you guys help me choose a filter?
I don't know if I should go with XXPro or Valencia,
I want to look tan.
What should my caption be?
I want it to be clever.
How about 'living with my bitchez, #lip,'
I only got ten likes in the last five minutes,
Do you think I should take it down?
Let me take another #selfie.
Let me take a #selfie.

That is how I am told the 2014 number one hit song goes. Whilst I am not adverse to the themes of mass consumed popular culture, this song is perhaps representative of the new narcissism and individuality which has been brought on by our post-modern information technology driven economy.

It is not often that one is able to ponder in solemn silence, the greatness and majesty of the world we live in. I very recently however experienced this in three locations. The first was when I behest the furthest west point of the Iberian peninsula, an hour's drive from Lisbon. The second, when I was drawn in by the full majesty atop the monastery of Monserrat and finally, as my flight to London from Barcelona departed circled over the Mediterranean and back over the Pyrenees, watching the final glimmer of sun disappear over the horizon in a dancing brilliance of pink and orange.

The 'holding up the tower' pose is a traditional example of individuals needing to keep a record of having visited a particular historic place.

Despite having taken photos myself, it was perhaps disappointing also to note how few in our contemporary instant-reminiscence driven culture genuinely cared for the sublimity of these places. These natural places, which once captured the imagination of explorers to venture forth into the Atlantic, for pilgrims of old to revere the majesty of god's creation and for us to contemplate the world in all its glory are lost to the ocean of images. Whilst I paused to appreciate the sun setting over the Atlantic and the sharp striations of the mountains of Monserrat, people around me moved, hustling and bustling to obtain the perfect image, making sure faces were shown, images instantly shared, appropriate 'hashtags' Instagrammed. I need scarcely say that no one around me would like likely stood in solemnity and truly be empowered by what Edmund Burke considered the terrible beauty of sublimity.

What is frustrating for me is the social shift which this information driven economy represents. These notions of hashtag (which I of course use as any other youth, I admit), of images shared are moments of instant reminiscence. we will snap it, share it, and forget all about it. In such a situation, what has the individual truly experienced of the place he or she has just visited? The majesty of space, the fluidity of light and the gentle white mist clearing to reveal the mountains over Europe become nothing more than a backdrop for a #selfie. Place, as a result, no longer holds meaning and significance, it is simply a representation of somewhere "I have been" rather than somewhere "I experienced." This shift, truly would be a great loss to our collective human psyche and experiential way of living.

In experiencing the great beauty that the light which shines upon this Earth still has to offer, just as Turner once captured with great virtuoso in his art, I hope that you, dear reader, will pause for five minutes, maybe even ten to simply stop and stare. By all means photograph and share and like, but at least for a moment, pause. Not for any notion of 'living in the moment,' but to see with our eyes, rather than through a screen, and who knows, perhaps, just as Romeo saw when he first saw Juliet, you too may gaze upon this Earth and declare, "For swear it sight, I ne'er saw true beauty till this night..."

The High Rise Selfie, whilst casting a new perspective on how we view buildings, has also led in recent years to unfortunate accidents.