It was seconds away from New Year’s in Paris. A sea of crowd gathered near the Arc de Triomphe to witness the magical light and fireworks show. It was the perfect moment to live, to immerse, to celebrate…and well, to capture, and the latter is exactly what happened.

new year's paris controversy
X – Culture Critic

This is not to criticise the Parisian crowd cos, on any given day, many among us would have followed their footsteps. You know, pull out our cellphones and click the perfect photo and video until our galleries are flooding timestamps of 100 copies of the same scene, and the moment has passed.

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It’s been some time since we realised that ‘Black Mirror‘ may be set in a not-so-distant dystopian world, but it’s a part of our everyday reality. After all, we’re glued to our black mirrors every day, only their screens are lit up.

The New Year Celebration video near the famous monument has recently courted controversy on X. Take a look.

But the intent is right, no? Like all we want is to carry a beautiful moment with us forever. And that’s not too bad of an idea since cellphone cameras have been a boon in that regard. Now, going out of the way, capturing multiple shots of the same scene, and as a result, missing out on experiencing the complete moment is a different story altogether.

Here’s how people are reacting:

Guess the video shouldn’t really be a controversy but a commentary on our lived realities.