Everything is dark and a low chatter permeates the concert hall. A strum of the guitar quickly turns the crowd into pandemonium as the band walks out onto the stage. The sea of clapping hands turns into one of smart phones and each person tries to get a better picture than the person next to him.

The idea of trying to record every moment of life has become more and more popular as programs like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat have started to promote the idea of taking photos and sharing them with everybody you know (or don’t know). And while I’m guilty of rapid-fire photo taking at every concert, sporting event, or family gathering, I can’t help but feel that this phenomenon is taking away from the actual moments that we consider “photo-worthy” in the first place.

I’ve started noticing at concerts that there’s always at least one guy who stands still the entire concert so he can capture the perfect recording of the song being played. He doesn’t sing or dance because he doesn’t want that on the tape. And while he may get a recording that rivals the studio-recorded album, he missed out on what the concert is really about: belting out the lyrics to your favorite song and dancing like crazy with somebody you just met.

Similarly, constantly stopping the conversation with friends to grab the perfect photo stops the natural flow of conversation that can be so fun with good friends.

I’m not saying that we should no longer take photos and chuck all cameras and smartphones in the trash. I use Instagram and Snapchat as much as the next teenager. But instead, we should consider whether the photo is worth being “absent” from the moment for a minute.

It’s time to stop taking 187 photos of every step the band member takes, or endless videos of the stage before anyone even comes out. Having to delete photos to make more room on my phone, and then taking more useless shots of the event, doesn’t make sense.

One possible remedy would be to take a couple photos here and there of the moments that I know will make me remember the concert best. If I have an iPhone available to me, I might as well use it. What’s the fun in going to a concert if I can’t preserve even a part of it?

I don’t want to sound like a grumpy tech-hater who doesn’t want anything to do with smartphones or computers. I just don’t think that having a photo-frenzy is worth ruining a special moment.