EIt’s the basket. The one that serves to leave behind the 38,387 of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and make whoever gets it the top scorer in NBA history. LeBron James shoots from midrange to one hand. Kenrich Williams defends with his eyes. Thomas Bryant, naive, asks for an assist. Phil Knight, founder and owner of Nike, watches from the front row of Staples. Next to him are Bronny and Bryce James, sons of the new record man, trying to capture a snapshot with their phones. Behind, hundreds of fans do the same. Beyond the aforementioned Knight, it is extremely difficult to find someone without a telephone in the image. There are, but it is complicated. These are definitely new times: “It is a pity that we stop living such special moments to take a photograph, because it is evident that she is not the same one way or the other … and also that you will rarely see her again.”
A video for eternity: this is how LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record
It is explained by Marc Masip, with whom Primera Plana talks in his double role as psychologist and expert in addiction to New Technologies. Director of the psychoeducational program ‘Disconnect’ and author of a book with the same name, he acknowledges that he has seen the photo in question hours ago, this one from a professional, this one distributed by an agency and by the League itself: “Bestial. She has caught my attention so much that I have kept it. I thought about using it for work, of course“. Because, with a pioneering program to make good use of technology without deteriorating personal relationships or creating dependencies, among its many professional activities it also includes giving conferences and organizing camps.
It’s a shame that in special moments we worry about an image that we will rarely see
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“We stop living life to upload it to networks and say ‘I was there’. It is posturing, obligation to like. We have a need for belonging and admiration for the group. We want recognition, just as it happens with the ‘likes’. We prefer to capture special moments”, continues Masip. “You are not going to relive what you did not experience with your eyes. We are stunned with the mobile and with the networks. The more screens, the less hugs, kisses, empathy, glances or real communication… we have difficulty relating to each other”, he laments, aware that there is work ahead. Arduous. Because, and there he repeats a catchy phrase and that for that very reason it takes time pronouncing, “mobile is the heroine of the 21st century.”
‘The last shot’, de Michael Jordan.
The psychologist develops such a forceful statement: “It is not bad in itself and it can be used well, but we use it fatally. It is not the problem, but it catapults the problem due to the facilities it offers in terms of content.” The LeBron thing has happened thousands of kilometers away, on the west coast of the United States, but it is also convenient to focus on Spain: “It is the country with the most adolescent addiction in Europe, 21.3% [la media continental rondara el 13%]. They don’t know how to live without cell phones or networks… but we don’t give them a good example either when they see us use it at home, on the street, driving. In my opinion, they should be prohibited in schools, but you have to pay attention in any case that there are few children in that photo and quite a few adults”. excessive interest in what is happening: “It doesn’t fail, it has an age. He doesn’t care and lives in the moment. Sounds like crack to me.”
The more screens, the less hugs, kisses, looks, empathy… less real communication
LeBron’s photo has been compared to ‘The last shot’ by Michael Jordan in 1998, that basket that earned a ring (the sixth for Chicago) and that has also gone down in posterity in part because of the public that followed the game from a very young age. Utah flag background. People with their mouths open, with their hands on their heads, even praying, with different sensations depending on whether they preferred the shooter’s Bulls or the Jazz… but without screens to capture the moment their retinas were registering. “We must take a step back in the technological and move forward in the human. This need to show supposes a lack of self-esteem. It takes away your time and takes away your experiences,” Masip insists when questioned about James and his possible similarity.
Diagnosed the problem, the expert also offers solutions. Not so much in the short as in the medium and long term. “State laws that govern the use of technology, management of addictive elements by companies, because they know there are, a lot of training and pedagogy in families and professionals to educate minors…“, enumerates Masip. A photograph of a basket becomes a photograph of people taking photographs. It is what it is.
