​How many of us would risk missing out on the moment?

In fact, throughout history folk with crow’s feet and bad guts have pulled their faces at the antics of those in the various stages of youth. Social commentators and historians tend to use such behaviours as examples of how mankind tends to rail against change, which is usually a fair cop, but not always.

There was quite a debate on the wireless and certain sections of the written media last week following the actions of those who were lucky enough to witness American basketball legend LeBron James become the highest point scorer in the sport’s history. There’s an image doing the rounds showing a vast bank of spectators witnessing the historic moment that James surpassed the magic number and nearly every one of them has their phone out to capture the moment.

I imagine most of them had their devices on the video setting as surely no amateur has enough confidence in their abilities with a smartphone to think they can capture a basketball in mid-flight, never mind the split second that it hit the target. The question that many of us are asking is ‘why?’.

This magnificent feat was always going to be huge news, covered in great detail by every network, who had access to high quality footage shot by the most trusted professionals, people who’ve probably never looked back at their work to discover that they had half a thumb over the lens.

This isn’t a generational thing as was inferred - some of the courtside snappers looked as old as me, if not older, but they would’ve had their reasons. I imagine that in many cases, it was to prove that they were there, but surely the obligatory selfie before proceedings started would suffice or, call me old fashioned, they could’ve bought a programme or kept their ticket stub?

The suspicion is that the motivation for so many wanting to watch history play out through a seven inch screen rather than use their own eyes is that they wanted to stick it on their social media accounts. I suppose that if you’ve shelled out thousands of dollars - which is what it apparently costs to get close to the action in the star-studded NBA - then you probably want to brag about the fact that you were there. However, how many of us would risk missing out on the moment?

Do people who film everything they go to ever really watch the videos back? The only time I trawl my vast gallery of pictures and videos is when I’m reminded of a special family occasion that has since been forgotten.

I’ve long been perplexed by fellow footy fans who feel the need to whip out the Samsung or iPhone when a famous player takes a corner just yards in front of them. I don’t know about you, but I’m never more than a second away from losing all self control whenever my team gets remotely close to the opposition’s area and the idea of fumbling for my phone in the name of posterity’s sake doesn’t ever enter my mind.

How can you wildly celebrate a last minute equaliser when you are clutching one of the most expensive things that you own in one hand?

This obsession with using phones to unnecessarily chronicle events isn’t limited to sporting occasions; on a very rare cultural excursion to the Louvre in Paris years ago, I had to stand on tiptoes to gawp at the Mona Lisa, so deep was the sea of phones and tablets. I mean, we all know what the world’s most famous painting looks like - the point of me going was to see it with my own eyes.

I think we all have to accept that there are some things other people do that we won’t ever fully understand.