Live. Experience.

I saw a commercial yesterday. It was advertising an HD programme and it was full of bursting colours and mind-blowing sounds, and of course a happy couple watching the huge flatscreen taking them to another world. I neither possess a huge flatscreen, nor am I a happy couple watching, nor am I delighted by watching explosions I could lose my eyesight from. But nevertheless, watching that scene you cannot escape the thought that an HD programme is the one thing missing in your life. 

What was really striking, was the slogan. "See more. Experience more." Have we reached the point today that we need to sit in front of the TV to experience things? Isn´t experiencing an activity? I watch other people sing in casting shows. Am I experiencing singing? No. There are enough karaoke parties, where I could experience it. I am watching a clumsy detective buying a magazine at a store. Am I experiencing it? No, I have a store downstairs myself, but at the moment I am watching TV, I am far too lazy to go for it.

Where does the idea come from, then, that we experience by watching TV? I believe that it has become especially hard nowadays to have the feeling we are really experiencing something interesting, exciting, or simply beautiful. We are flooded with sensations through television shows and movies every day, and nothing in our everyday lives could possibly be only half as terrific in comparison to the scenes that are boosted with special effects and too-good-to-be-true-sceneries. 

It has become very hard to recognize a ladybug that lands on your hand as a beautiful experience. Or just enjoying a beautiful panorama as an enriching moment. All of that is just not sensational enough. 

Ph.: K.P.

Thinking about the degradation of experience, I realised that the concept of experience differs significantly in English, German and Serbian. In English, experience is gained, it is a goal to be reached and you collect it like you collect photos in an album. There is an equivalent for experience in German, "Erfahrung", which is treated in the same way as the English "experience", but in this text experience is used in another sense. In German, there is the concept of "Erleben", stemming from "leben" - "live". In Serbian the concept functions in the same way "doziveti": "ziveti" - "live". In German and in Serbian fulfilling moments we "experience" are seen as the moments we live for, something that enriches us without having any further use for us. 

It is just the moments that make life really worth living. And they certainly cannot be found inside a box with moving pictures called television, no matter how flat the screen is and how huge the dimensions of the screen.