You might think the smartphone camera is a wonderful invention. It lets you capture moments that would otherwise be lost, because it’s always just a few seconds away, in your pocket.

But the smartphone camera is a sinister Life Stealer. It is convenient, so it tempts us to reach for it often.

Because we reach for it often, we interrupt our precious moments more frequently.

We think that when we capture moments with a camera or camcorder, we can keep them safe. We think we can preserve the perfect moment digitally, permanently.

This does take some stress away. It’s okay if we “miss” something, because we can go back and watch the video. It’s okay if it happened too quickly, because we can relive the moment over and over later.

But imagine if you didn’t have this magic memory capturing tool. Imagine that every moment disappears as quickly as it comes. Imagine that you can never take any special moment lightly, because that moment might never come again.

I think that would force you to pay attention.

Because you won’t think that you can “save it for later”. It would demand that you appreciate every moment because the present is all you have.

But we have the smartphone camera. And so we zip through life never fully experiencing anything, thinking that we can put off living in the moment. And that we can cherish and indulge in our memories some day later.

But of course that “some day” might never come, because when you’re always busy archiving memories, when will there be time to enjoy them? You can only do one thing at a time. If you’re too busy capturing the present or reliving the past, you miss out on right now.

And, what if, when you finally get around to appreciating your archived memories, it might be too late? Your kids might have grown up. Or you might be old. Or gone.